The present invention provides an isolated nucleic acid molecule constituting the human 5HT.sub.7 receptor promoter. Also disclosed are fragments thereof including enhancers and/or responsive elements such as NcoI or BARBIE, as well as the recombinant use thereof. It is thus a further aspect of the present invention to provide recombinant DNA molecules wherein the nucleotides according to the invention are operably linked to a detectable product, such as a luciferase gene or a CAT gene. Cell-based screening assays for identifying compounds that modulate the level of expression of a gene operably linked to the human 5HT.sub.7 receptor promoter, or an active fragment thereof, also are provided.