This special issue contains selected contributions from the 10th European Workshop on Particulate Systems (EWPS) 19th–20th January 2017, which was hosted by the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark and organized by Prof. Camilla Foged, Prof. Hanne Mørck Nielsen and Prof. Sven Frøkjær. The EWPS has been held approximately every two years since the first EWPS at Freie Universität Berlin in 1997. In 2017, research groups from Utrecht University, Ghent University, Freie Universität Berlin, University of Geneva, Philipps-Universität Marburg and University of Copenhagen participated in the 10th EWPS. A major purpose of EWPS is to foster strong professional and personal networks and relationships among leading groups in Europe in the area of particulate technology in pharmacy and medicine. In addition, EWPS has an important educational scope by contributing to training a new generation of young pharmaceutical scientists in critical scientific thinking and presentation skills in the format of oral and poster presentations in an informal forum.

In the past, selected presentations from the symposium have been published in a special issue of the International Journal of Pharmaceutics. This special issue contains 10 selected full papers arising from the Copenhagen meeting covering a wide spectrum of topics, but many of the contributions to this issue falls under the topic pharmaceutical nanotechnology and the use of particulate systems in nanomedicine. The contributions reflect the wide interest for use of nanoparticles in drug delivery and targeting for the delivery of antibiotics (Ritsema et al.), anti-inflammatory drugs, anticancer drugs and nucleic acid-based drugs. The importance of designing and developing robust nanomedicine formulations by using quality-by-design approaches is illustrated by Leng et al. Gholizadeh et al. describe two different long-circulating systems based on polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes for active drug targeting to inflamed endothelium. Thauvin et al. present data showing how to use functionalization of PLA polymers to control drug loading and release from polymeric nanoparticles. Triggered drug release is another fundamental aspect of nanomedicine. In this issue, the effect of including cholesterol in temperature-sensitive liposomes is described (Sadeghi et al.). Nanoparticulate systems for delivery of nucleic acid-based drugs represent highly complex formulations, which are particularly challenging with respect to manufacture, purification and analytical methods used for physicochemical characterization. Stremersch et al. highlight the importance of adequate purification methods for extracellular vesicles loaded with nucleic acids and labelled with fluorophores, and Oude Blenke et al. present a critical evaluation of quantification methods for assessing oligonucleotide encapsulation and loading in lipid nanoparticles. Other papers address (i) the interesting interface between device technology and drug delivery, here describing the design of a foam used for coating of drug-eluting stents (Chen et al.) and, (ii) the use of paper for the manufacturing of tablets (Stumpf et al.).

We hope that these selected contributions from the 10th EWPS may be of interest to a wider audience.