Following her PhD at the University of Salamanca, where he began studying brain energy metabolism under the direction of Jose M. Medina, and a brief stay with Dereck Williamson in the Metabolic Research Laboratory (Oxford, UK), Juan Pedro Bolaños spent two years as a Marie Curie Fellow in the laboratory of John B. Clark Institute of Neurology (University College London, UK). During this time he became interested in studying the control of mitochondrial bioenergetics in neurons and astrocytes by nitric oxide and other reactive oxygen species. Also awarded the Marie Curie Excellence Award in 2005.

He returned to Salamanca, where he is now professor at the university. Among its main points highlights the identification of cytochrome c oxidase as a primary target of nitric oxide, and regulation of glutathione metabolism in neural cells in relation to the protection of neuronal damage. His group is working on mechanisms regulating neuronal bioenergetics, its relevance to oxidative stress and its relation to the identification of molecular targets in Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.