Zdeněk Drahota graduated at the Faculty of Charles University in Prague, majoring in biochemistry dissertation under the guidance of doc. A. Kleinzeler in 1954. In the same year he joined the Institute of Physiology of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences at the laboratory of prof. A. Gutmann. He dealt with the neural control of muscle metabolism under physiological and pathological conditions and the role of energy metabolism. In 1964 he went on a long-term residency at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, laboratory of leading expert in the mitochondrialstudy A. L Lehninger. After his return, he joined Dr. Hahn, who founded the new laboratory focused on the development of metabolic functions and problems of thermal homeostasis.

In 1968 he left for the annual visit to the Department of Biochemistry, Medical Faculty of the University of Padova. Upon his return, he was appointed the head of the laboratory instead of of Dr. Hahn, who emigrated together with Dr. Koldovský, Dr. Rock and Dr. E. Honová. The new laboratory that started with three people, a student Josef Houštek and laboratory technician Marie. Soon, however, they added another young students Kopecky, Svoboda, Rauchová, Kuneš, Amler, Ježek, Dobešová, Vízek. It was managed to establish a successful scientific cooperation especially with the University of Stockholm and Italian universities (Padova, Bologna, Modena, Ancona, Bari). He participated in the organization of the domestic international congresses: Federation of European Biochemical Societies (1969) World Congress of Biochemistry (1985) and European Cell Biology Congress (1994).

He was a member of the editorial board of J. Bioenergetics and Biomembranes and worked in committees of  Czechoslaovak  biochemical and physiological society. After retiring from his position of Director Drahota dedicated to developing cooperation in the field of bioenergetics, both within the Institute and with other institutes of the Academy. The result of this collaboration is a series of joint publications. The overall Drahota´s publishing activity is about 215 publications, 2,300 citations (without self-citations), H index = 29, the number of publications per year in the last 5 years has been 4 to 8 Dr. Drahota is also involved in the training of researchers in the activities of committees for defense of master's and doctoral theses. He lectures on the Faculty of Science Charles University in Prague in the course of Bioenergy. He still works part-time as Emeritus in the Department of Bioenergetics Institute of Physiology CAS.

Last updated: January 6, 2016