A significant challenge in the current orthopedics is the development of suitable osteobiologic materials that can replace the conventional allografts, autografts, and xenografts and thereby serve as implant materials as bone substitutes for bone repair or remodelling. The complex biology behind the nanostructure and microstructure of bones and their repair mechanisms, which involve various types of chemical and biomechanical signalling amongst different cells, has set strong requirements for biomaterials to be used in bone tissue engineering. This review presents an overview of various types of osteobiologic materials to facilitate the formation of the functional bone tissue and healing of the bone, covering metallic, ceramic, polymeric, and cell-based graft substitutes, as well as some biomolecular strategies including stem cells, extracellular matrices, growth factors, and gene therapies. Advantages and disadvantages of each type, particularly from the perspective of osteoinductive and osteoconductive capabilities, are discussed. Although the numerous challenges of bone regeneration in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are yet to be entirely addressed, further advancements in osteobiologic materials will pave the way towards engineering fully functional bone replacement grafts.

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A reduced-order model of a Microfluidic Transistor is presented. The transistor is essentially a long micro channel between substrate and a membrane that is pressure actuated. The proposed model captures steady (DC) and small signal (AC) behavior of the device in a manner analogous to standard semiconductor transistor models. The model is based on steady and perturbed unsteady solutions of the conservation of mass and momentum, coupled with an elastic model for the membrane. To improve the accuracy and to enhance the range of validity, the model is enhanced by numerical simulations of the coupled fluid-structure problem. The model predicts dependence of the transconductance on the pressure differentials across the membrane and along the channel. The proposed model also investigates the impact of flow inertia, among other effects, on the dynamic behavior of the transistor.