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Laboratory of Neuromodulation, BUAP, since 2001

Jorge Flores Hernández

He has run the laboratory since 2001 at BUAP's Institute of Physiology in Puebla, Mexico. The lab studies how dopamine, acetylcholine and serotonin change the way a neuron responds.

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Four research lines in the laboratory

Patch-clamp recordings in isolated neurons and rat brain slices: prefrontal cortex, striatum, nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area.

  1. 01 Dopamine and the striatum

    How D1 and D2 receptors regulate striatal NMDA and GABA-A currents through the PKA/DARPP-32 cascade.

  2. 02 Acetylcholine and serotonin

    Direct cholinergic inhibition of the NMDA receptor, and what serotonin in gestation changes in the offspring.

  3. 03 Disease models

    Models of Huntington's and Parkinson's disease: what changes in the neuron when neuromodulation fails, and what protects it.

    ProtocolModels
    Model
    Huntington's disease, 3-nitropropionic acid
    Model
    Parkinson's disease
    Neurons
    Striatal
    Recording
    GABA-induced currents
    Question
    What changes when neuromodulation fails, and what protects the neuron

    Brain Sciences 8(12):217 · 2018

  4. 04 New tools

    Molecular docking on the NMDA receptor, computer vision with INAOE and teaching simulators.

    Tools
    • 2022Molecular dockingAcetylcholine on the NMDA receptor · ACS Chemical Neuroscience
    • 2025Computer visionSegmenting neurons in low-resolution microscopy, with INAOE · Computación y Sistemas
    • TeachingTeaching simulatorsOf the NMDA receptor, for the classroom

Twelve papers, 1994 to 2025

Newest first, each with its journal, authors, DOI and the citations OpenAlex counts. See all on ORCID

Publications / SelectedCitations: OpenAlex, Nov 2026

Paper ·

Dopamine enhancement of NMDA currents in dissociated medium-sized striatal neurons: role of D1 receptors and DARPP-32

Flores-Hernández J, Cepeda C, Hernández-Echeagaray E, Calvert CR, Jokel ES, Fienberg AA, Greengard P, Levine MS

Journal
Journal of Neurophysiology
Volume
88:3010-3020
Citations
276
doi:10.1152/jn.00361.2002

About Jorge Flores Hernández

A biologist from UNAM, with a master's and a doctorate from the Instituto de Fisiología Celular under Elvira Galarraga and José Bargas. Two postdocs followed: with D. James Surmeier in Memphis, and with Michael Levine and Carlos Cepeda at UCLA.

His most cited papers, written with Paul Greengard, the 2000 Nobel laureate in Medicine, describe how the D1 dopamine receptor regulates the GABA-A and NMDA currents of striatal neurons.

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Theses and research stays in the laboratory

Faculty of the MSc and PhD programmes in Physiological Sciences at BUAP. He has supervised undergraduate, master's and doctoral theses in electrophysiology, and co-supervises work with INAOE and the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala.

The theses cover the serotonergic and cholinergic modulation of glutamate currents, and the effects of dapsone and aripiprazole on the NMDA receptor.

  • UNAM
  • UCLA
  • Oklahoma State University
  • Inserm, Rouen
  • University of Łódź
  • Complutense University of Madrid
  • INAOE
  • Autonomous University of Tlaxcala

Career from 1981 to today

From UNAM to Puebla, by way of Memphis and Los Angeles. Figures from OpenAlex, November 2026.

63

indexed works

2,745

citations of those works

26

h-index

25

years at the head of the laboratory

  1. 1981 to 1987

    BSc in Biology

    Faculty of Sciences, UNAM

  2. 1988 to 1995

    MSc and PhD

    Instituto de Fisiología Celular, UNAM

  3. 1996 to 1998

    Postdoctoral fellow

    University of Tennessee, Memphis

  4. 1998 to 2001

    Postdoctoral fellow

    UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute

  5. 1999 to 2000

    Tourette Syndrome Association Research Award

    UCLA

  6. Since 2001

    Full Professor and Researcher

    Institute of Physiology, BUAP

  7. 2010

    Puebla State Prize for Science and Technology

    Puebla

  8. 2013 to 2015

    University Councillor

    Institute of Physiology, BUAP

  9. 2024 to 2028

    National Researcher, Level II

    SNII, a candidate from 1991, Level I from 2002 to 2023

Talks and interviews outside the laboratory

For audiences outside neuroscience, and a personal project about what we believe and how that becomes biology.

The forum in pictures

Xicotepec de Juárez, 7 November 2026 · Each picture opens in full

  • Jorge Flores Hernández at the UTXJ lectern with the microphone; on the screen, the title of his talk: How do drugs work?
  • Jorge Flores Hernández speaking to the audience; on the slide, the Laboratorio de Neuromodulación logo and its 25th-anniversary emblem
  • Jorge Flores Hernández receives the forum's certificate of recognition from one of the organisers
  • Jorge Flores Hernández shows his certificate of recognition beside the forum's organisers
  • The forum's speakers and organisers standing in front of the screen
  • Gardens and a building under the mountain mist in Xicotepec de Juárez