Flow and heat transfer in biological tissues are analyzed in this investigation. Pertinent works are reviewed in order to show how transport theories in porous media advance the progress in biology. The main concepts studied in this review are transport in porous media using mass diffusion and different convective flow models such as Darcy and the Brinkman models. Energy transport in tissues is also analyzed. Progress in development of the bioheat equation (heat transfer equation in biological tissues) and evaluation of the applications associated with the bioheat equation are analyzed. Prominent examples of diffusive applications and momentum transport by convection are discussed in this work. The theory of porous media for heat transfer in biological tissues is found to be most appropriate since it contains fewer assumptions as compared to different bioheat models. A concept that is related to flow instabilities caused by swimming of microorganisms is also discussed. This concept named bioconvection is different from blood convection inside vessels. The works that consider the possibility of reducing these flow instabilities using porous media are reviewed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.