Klára Hlouchová and her team, for instance, discovered that although all living organisms on our planet use twenty amino acids, many functions could be performed with fewer. Her discoveries help answer questions related to the potential for life elsewhere in the universe.

She leads her own research group in synthetic biology at her alma mater, the Faculty of Science at Charles University, where she studied biochemistry. Another of her professional bases was the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (ÚOCHB).

As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked at the University of Colorado Boulder and the NASA Astrobiology Institute in the USA, where she studied the evolution of metabolic pathways. This led her to questions about the origins of life, aligning strongly with her fascination with astrobiology and the study of life in the universe. This shift in focus prompted the medically trained biochemist to reorient her career path.