The work has applications in a variety of areas, in particular tissue engineering/regenerative medicine and environmental biotechnology. As a result, the research group has an interest in a wide variety of techniques, including cell culture, analytical biotechnology, miniaturisation and microfabrication, separation technology and modelling. In addition, you have to be able to monitor subsequent changes in cell numbers, cell properties and cell activity. To be able to create and investigate biomaterials with spatial structure at the micro scale you have to be able to grow cells, investigate their properties, separate them, bring them together selectively and in the right position and orientation, and immobilize them. A range of microbial, plant and animal cells are used in the experiments. Research efforts within his research group concentrate on the investigation of multicellular systems such as tissues and biofilms, investigating how they emerge, how they can be artificially created, and what consequences architecture has for cellular growth, activity and differentiation. He has particularly strong expertise in the study of the dielectric properties of cells and its applications, but also has interests in other techniques such as ultrasound and optical techniques. Prof Markx's research is primarily aimed at the development of novel physical techniques for the characterisation, separation and micromanipulation of cells.
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Before his appointment at Heriot-Watt he was in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at the University of Manchester. Gerard Markx Microbial biofilms are complex self-organized communities of microbial cells that provide protective environments for the cells that inhabit the biofilm, enabling them to respond. He lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.Gerard Markx was recently appointed as Professor in Bioprocessing at Heriot-Watt University. Marx is a fellow of the Sundance Film Institute, the Annenberg Fund and of the Ampersand Foundation. He has extensive experience in theatre, as a scenographer, director, filmmaker and playmaker, including REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony (directed by Marx, interactive film by Gerhard Marx and Maja Marx, composed by Philip Miller), performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London (2010), the Market Theatre, Johannesburg (2008) and the 62’Centre, William College, Massachusetts (2007). Vehicle is scheduled to form part of the Holland Festival in June 2019. In 2018 Marx participated in the third season at the Centre for the Less Good Idea with his project Vehicle, in collaboration with musicians Shane Cooper and Kyle Shepherd. Marx has been involved in the making of numerous public sculptures, including The World On Its Hind Legs, a collaboration with William Kentridge (Beverley Hills, LA), Vertical Aerial: JHB, (the Old Ford, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg), The Fire Walker, in collaboration with William Kentridge (Queen Elizabeth Bridge, Johannesburg) and Paper Pigeon, in collaboration with Maja Marx (Pigeon Square, Johannesburg). Marx’s work is shown regularly at international art fairs, held in numerous public and private art collections and was included on the South African pavilion at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Marx completed his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT and received his MA (Fine Art) (Cum Laude) from Wits School of Art, Johannesburg. This process entails careful acts of dissection and rearrangement, which allow Marx to engage the poetic potential and philosophical assumptions of his chosen material, developing original drawing, sculptural and performative languages.
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1976, South Africa) develops his projects through an engagement with pre-existent conventions and practices.