Lab Members

Rodrigo Díaz Muñoz (PhD student)

I graduated in Health Biology (2022, University of Alcalá de Henares), and achieved a master´s degree in Neuroscience, with a specialization in Clinical Neuroscience (2023, Complutense University of Madrid). As an undergraduated, I worked as an investigation assistant in neonatal department in San Carlos Clinical Hospital (IdISSC), where I conducted a general characterization and neuroprotective strategies for inflammatory-origin cerebral palsy Rat Model. Thus, it helps me acquired considerable expertise not only, in behavioural tests, but also, molecular biology techniques as Western Blot and immunochemistry, and RM and histological analyzes. Currently, one year later, I have joined as predoctoral student with a Plan Propio FPI UCLM grant in Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab where I focus on the importance of glia in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, which I provide me with experience in behavioural tasks, electrophysiology, and biochemical techniques. Apart from researching, I spend my free time with family and friend, trying to convince them that my experiments with mice do not include teaching them to cook like Ratatouille.

Raquel Jiménez Herrera (PhD student)

I graduated in Biology at the university of Jaen in 2017. Once I finished my degree, I worked as an investigation assistant in the biochemistry area at the Enzymes and Metabolism Lab, so I learned cell culture techniques, cytotoxicity and cell viability. In 2018, I obtained a master’s degree in Experimental Biomedicine at the UCLM in Albacete. Due to my interest in neurophysiology, I had the opportunity to do my final master’s project at the Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab. In this project, we perform both electrophysiology techniques and behavioral tests in animal models with an early stage of Alzheimer's disease. The results obtained were published and presented at international conferences (Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2020). Currently, I am working as a laboratory technician collaborating to the lab research. Although research is my passion, I enjoy visiting new places with my family or friends.

Jaime Mulero Franco (PhD student)

I graduated in Biology (2021), and I obtained a master’s degree in pharmacological research (2022) from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. As undergraduate, I worked as an investigation assistant in neuromolecular biology department in Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa. In this project I conducted a general characterization of the defects in myelin and oligodendrocytes differentiation in Niemann Pick disease. So, it helps me acquired considerable expertise in molecular biology techniques as Western Blot, immunochemistry, and cellular cultures. In fact, I could present these results in 5 national congresses and obtained the prize of the best oral communication in 2 of them. Currently, I have started a new stage as predoctoral investigator in Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab where I am going to characterize the cognitive defects associated to neuronal hyperexcitability in 5X FAD model mouse of Alzheimer disease. My passion apart of the research is do boxing, dance bachata and pass time with my family and friends.

Danko Jeremic (Postdoc)

I completed integrated Undergraduate and Master studies in Pharmacy in year 2016, from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Novi Sad. During my time there, I participated in the various projects in the fields of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Bromatology and I gained special interest in the field of Neuroscience. Upon graduation, I was involved in short-term research internship at the Medicinal Chemistry department in Lodz, where I conducted synthesis and chemical characterization of heterocycle ligands and their coordination compounds. Two years after, I obtained Master’s degree in Neuroscience at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, and in 2020 I joined the Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior as a predoctoral researcher, where I am helping to identify the early pathophysiological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease at the molecular, cellular and behavioural level. Some of the results obtained by now have been published recently. In my free time, I enjoy listening music, reading and doing silly things, because “if people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.”

Souhail Djebari (Postdoc)

I graduated in Biology (2015) and obtained a master’s degree in Physiology and Neuroscience (2016) from the University of Sevilla. As an undergraduate, I spent 2 years as a boarding student at the physiology department of the University of Sevilla, where I conducted research on the mechanisms of short-term plasticity in the oculomotor system, and I acquired considerable expertise in immunohistochemical and confocal microscopy techniques. As a predoctoral student at the Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab, my research focused on the modulation of hippocampal inhibitory synaptic transmission in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, which provided me with great experience in electrophysiology, particularly extracellular field potential recording in vitro and in vivo, and in behavioral analysis. I have recently obtained my PhD Degree in Health Sciences (2020) and carried out a research stay as a visiting scientist at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Germany, where I applied techniques of Patch clamp slice recording to understand the role of TRPC channels in Alzheimer´s disease. I am currently serving as teaching assistant in physiology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha while I continue contributing to the lab research. Outside of the lab, I am just kidding there is no outside of the lab.

Ana Contreras Marín (Postdoc)

I graduated in Psychology (2014, University of Almería), and I have an official Master's degree in Neuroscience, with a specialization in Clinical Neuroscience (2015, Complutense University of Madrid). During the last 3 years of my bachelors degree, I collaborated in the Basic Psychology Laboratory of my University and, later on, during my master’s degree in the Department of Psychobiology at UNED. In October 2015, I began my PhD Thesis in the area of Pharmacology and Toxicology at CEU-San Pablo University, thanks to the granting of an FPI scholarship. The main goal of the thesis, which was included within a project of the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality (National Plan on Drugs 2014I029), was the study of the effects of alcohol consumption during adolescence on the hippocampal plastic processes depending on the type of consumption (chronic-moderate vs. intermittent-excessive). To do so, I performed behavioural assays, ex vivo electrophysiology and a range of biomolecular techniques that allow me to study the plastic processes that underlie learning and memory. As a predoctoral student, I did a national internship stay at the Cajal Laboratory of Cortical Circuits (UAM) and an international internship stay, for which I held a mobility scholarship, at the Brain Institute of Florida Atlantic University (FAU, USA). In 2022 I joined the Neurophysiology & Behavior Lab (University of Castilla-La Mancha) as a post-doctoral fellow with a Margarita Salas Research Contract. If I'm not in the lab, you can probably find me on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the ocean.

Juan de Dios Navarro López (PI)

After obtaining my degree in Pharmacy of Granada (1998) and Doctorate Extraordinary Award in Physiology, Univ. Pablo de Olavide, Seville (2004). During this time I conducted in vivo and in vitro experiments to further characterize the cellular and electrophysiological events that underlie the eye fixation in the oculomotor system. Then I moved at Dpt. of Physiology & Ear Institute, Univ. College London, and changed the study of a motor system by a sensory system. My work focused on potassium channels in the auditory pathway, granted by the Welcome Trust and European Marie Curie Programme. In 2008, after obtaining a postdoctoral Sara Borrell Fellowship (ISCIII), I joined the Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla y León, Univ. Salamanca, where I investigated the effects of amyloid-β peptide on the mammalian hippocampus, as well as the functional integration of nerve tissue transplants into injured adult animals. Afterward I was awarded by Ramón y Cajal Programme (MICINN). After developing 1 year at the Institute of Neurosciences Federico Olóriz, Univ. Granada, finally in 2011, I joined the New Faculty of Medicine of Ciudad Real for starting the Teaching and Research Area of Physiology. Since then, I have developed teaching, research, and management as Associate Professor of Physiology. In addition, I founded the Neurophysiology & Behavior Lab with Dr. Lydia Jiménez Díaz.

Results of my work have been published in numerous high impact journals such as J Neurosci, J Neurochem, Sci Rep, Pharmacol Ther (some of them have been awarded). I have submitted more than 100 communications to national and international congresses, as well as invited presentations, obtaining numerous assistance grants. I am co-author of different book chapters and editor of several books and I have taken more than 20 national and international specialization courses. As a PI, I have obtained numerous grants from both European (Marie Curie Programme, British Tinnitus Association), national (MICINN, Rodríguez Pascual Foundation), and regional (Junta de Castilla y León, Junta de Castilla-La Mancha, USAL, UGR, UCLM), maintaining continuous competitive fundings from 2006 up today. I am an expert referee for Agencia Nacional de Evaluación y Prospectiva (ANEP), Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación (ANECA), Colciencias Advisory Committee of the Government of Colombia, Israel Science Foundation (ISF), German Gateway Fellowships, and reviewer in different neuroscience journals. Finally, I have also directed several grade and master's theses, and 6 doctoral dissertations.

Lydia Jiménez Díaz (PI)

I graduated in Pharmacy at the University of Granada and got a National Award from the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) of Spain. After initiating myself in scientific tasks as undergraduate Research Fellow funded by MEC and University of Granada in the Department of Biochemistry, I focused my research on the neural bases of motor learning. I held an FPU predoctoral scholarship from the Spanish Government to develop my PhD and doctorated in Physiology (2003) at the University Pablo Olavide (UPO), Seville. In 2005, after developing a one-year postdoctoral Research Fellow from the Ministry of Health at the Regional Center for Biomedical Research of the University of Castilla La-Mancha, I moved to University College London where I did pioneering research in the field of pain and local protein synthesis, as both MEC and Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In 2008 I joined the Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla y León (Physiology, Salamanca University) with a JUAN DE LA CIERVA Research Contract. Since then, my research activity has focused on the study of the neuropathological mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD). As a result of this research work, I obtained a RAMÓN Y CAJAL (2010) research contract to develop a new research line on the molecular and neurophysiological bases of cognitive deficits in the early stages of AD. I have already many master´s theses framed in this research line as well as 5 doctoral dissertations. I am currently directing another two doctoral dissertations related to line of investigation.

In 2011 I joined the newly created School of Medicine of Ciudad Real at UCLM, to launch the teaching and research area of Physiology. I am currently Full Professor (2018-) and Head of the Physiology Area in this Faculty where I combine my research activity as director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior together with Dr. J. Navarro, with teaching physiology to undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Degree in Medicine or different Masters in the fied of Biomedicine and Neurosciencies. Since 2017 I am also deputy director of the Regional Center for Biomedical Research of the UCLM and Castilla La-Mancha Coordinator of the examens of Biology to access university after High School.

My group's research lines focuses on studying the molecular, cellular, neural network and behavioral mechanisms that underlie AD, in order to seek therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of the disease. I have published numerous high impact research articles in the field of Neuroscience such as JNeuroci, Pharmacol Ther, JNeurochen, SciRep or Pain, most of which I am first author and / or author for correspondence. I am editor of several books and chapters and author of more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences. As a PI I have obtained numerous grants form national (MINECO, Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundations, Eugenio Rodríguez Pascual, Alfonso Martín Escudero, etc.), and regional (Fund. Samuel Solorzano, Vic. Invest USAL), maintaining competitive research funding. I am an expert referee evaluator of the ANEP and the Andalusian Progress and Health Foundation, Colciencias Advisory Committee of the Government of Colombia, Indian/UK Wellcome Trust Foundation, and reviewer and guest editor in different scientific neuroscience journals.

I love travelling with my family, reading and most of all enjoying live with my relatives and friends. I hope to retire by the sea and, as a scientific wish, I would love to write a research article at least once in live with no rush!

Lab Members

Current members

Rodrigo Díaz Muñoz (PhD student)

Raquel Jiménez Herrera (PhD student)

Jaime Mulero Franco (PhD student)

Danko Jeremic (Postdoc)

Souhail Djebari (Postdoc)

Ana Contreras Marín (Postdoc)

Juan de Dios Navarro López (PI)

Lydia Jiménez Díaz (PI)

Former members

Guillermo Iborra Lázaro

Irene Sánchez Rodríguez

Sara Temprano Carazo