Elijá Friedrich-Ulrich
BSc Medical & Pharmaceutical Biotechnology · IMC Krems, Austria
I work across the lab bench and the codebase — from adaptive laboratory evolution in the EcoCoat project to the tools and systems I build around my research. What drives me is setting things up from scratch, learning fast, and pushing them further — not stopping at the edge of what exists, but helping steer where the world is heading.
Research
The coatings industry produces toxic reaction water: an organic waste stream that today just gets incinerated. My thesis asks whether a microbe can be trained to live on the very compounds that make it toxic.
At a glance
I adapt a BSL-1 strain of E. coli to industrial reaction water using adaptive laboratory evolution. By limiting other nutrients and keeping the cells under selective pressure, the population learns to use the water's toxic organic compounds as a carbon source. Two goals: strip the toxic load out of the waste stream biologically, and cut the environmental cost of the chemical industry.
The experiments run on a Replifactory — a multiplexed, automated morbidostat for continuous culture. It reads the culture's growth in real time and adjusts the reaction-water concentration on the fly, so the selective pressure stays constant while E. coli 498 adapts.
Replifactory documentationAdaptive Laboratory Evolution of E. coli 498 to toxic paint and resin residues in industrial reaction water.
Institute of Biotechnology profile and research context at IMC Krems.
Selected work
A small selection of wet-lab and software work where I turn research into clean data, repeatable workflows, and usable systems.
Consolidated an over-fragmented Microsoft Teams import into a clean eLabFTW structure by merging 59 file-level experiments into grouped experiments and resources. Implemented an unattended eLabFTW API v2 migration workflow with staging, verification, and safe deletion.
Building an AI-assisted workflow around structured prompts, automation, and “plan → run → verify” execution loops — combining open-source agent tooling with a system-first personal knowledge setup.
Off the clock
Projects outside the lab where technology supports care and real-world documentation — from field-ready drone workflows to visual storytelling.
Exploring drone-assisted data capture for faun rescue operations — including documenting damages for insurance claims and informing agricultural stakeholders.
Focusing on how routinely-used drones can produce releaseable visual data — potentially enabling better awareness and early warnings in the field.
Résumé
Apr 2026 – present
Scientific Staff — EcoCoat Project
IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences · Krems an der Donau, Austria
Sep 2025 – Mar 2026
Project Intern — EcoCoat Project
IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences · Krems an der Donau, Austria
2023 - 2023
Food Server
Mang Hermenegild Heurigenschank · Weißenkirchen in der Wachau, Austria
2020 - 2023
Veterinary Assistant
Praxisgemeinschaft Steindl & Kraft · Lower Austria, Austria
Links
Places to follow my work — from research notes to tools and projects.
Contact
Elijá Samuel Friedrich-Ulrich
Biotechnologist — Adaptive Laboratory Evolution
IMC Krems — Institute of Biotechnology
Krems an der Donau, Austria
Save my contactContact
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Notes
Short notes from the lab and the codebase — methods, experiments, and what I learn while iterating.