iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Klara Hlouchova lab @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

(1/2) How did RNA and peptides organize before specific protein sequences existed? Our new study shows that heterogeneous peptide populations can spontaneously form liquid-like RNA-rich condensates with a model of the ancient ribosome.

doi.org

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Klara Hlouchova lab @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

(1/6) Restricting the amino acid alphabet can tell us a lot about early protein evolution and requirements for folding and catalysis. Our new review covers the methodological shift from pruning extant proteins to bottom-up design. www.cell.com/trends/bioch...

cell.com

Minimal-alphabet proteins by evolution, engineering, and design

Research on the structural and functional potential of minimal amino acid alphabets is shifting from reductive ‘pruning’ of extant proteins to bottom-up exploration of combinatorial sequence space. Th...

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Reposted by Klara Hlouchova lab

IOCB Prague @iocbprague.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

🦠 The #PROTOCELL experiment is heading into space! The project led by @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social & @pluskal-lab.org at IOCB Prague is one of 13 Czech scientific and technological experiments supported by @esa.int that will become part of the now confirmed mission of Czech astronaut Aleš Svoboda.

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Klara Hlouchova lab @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

To all early life enthusiasts🦠 How did we get from soups of chemicals to the Last Universal Common Ancestor? 🌋 Help us bridge the gap at A Road to LUCA in beautiful Prague! 🇨🇿 ⏳ 1 WEEK until the abstract deadline! Explore here: natur.cuni.cz/en/aroadtoluca

natur.cuni.cz

JME: A Road to LUCA

With support from Journal of Molecular Evolution and its editorial board, we are proud to organize “ JME: A Road to LUCA - Filling the gap between prebiotic chemistry and life as we know it ”, our ...

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Klara Hlouchova lab @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Hiring time! We're looking for experimentalist (ideally in polyamorous relationship with pipette and terminal) interested in synbio, genome engineering and fundamental biological questions, more in the link: www.researchjobs.cz/job/postdoct...

researchjobs.cz

Postdoctoral Researcher in Genome Engineering and Synthetic Biology (M/F)

In accordance with the The Competitive Hiring Process Code of Charles University, the Dean of the Faculty of Science of Charles…

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Klara Hlouchova lab @hlouchova-lab.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Can proteins fold and function with half of the amino acid alphabet? Using only 10 residues, we designed stable, mutation-resilient structures—no aromatics or basics involved. A minimalist foundation for ancient biology and synthetic design. tinyurl.com/37t8br4v #ProteinDesign #OriginsOfLife

tinyurl.com

Ancient amino acid sets enable stable protein folds

Early proteins likely arose from a chemically limited set of amino acids available through prebiotic chemistry, raising a central question in molecular evolution: could such primitive compositions yie...

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