Jon developed an interest in RNA biology during his PhD research on the pathogenic effects of RNA in the inherited disease Myotonic Dystrophy. However, during his time in Glasgow, first in the Barry lab and then in the Monckton and O’Dell groups, he was surrounded by work on unstable DNA and programmed recombination.

His post-doctoral research in the Tollervey lab in Edinburgh started in the biochemistry of RNA degradation, but moved steadily back towards genome alteration with studies on the roles of non-coding RNA in controlling the stability of repetitive DNA.