Professor Jones obtained his BSc in Microbiology at University College London and a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He has since worked in the US first at the University of Connecticut Medical School and subsequently at Purdue University, Indiana where he first became a lead scientist. He returned to London in 1985 and moved to Manchester in 1999 to become Director of the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research. Nic spent five years as Chief Scientist for Cancer Research UK and is now Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

Nic leads the Paterson Institute's Cell Regulation Laboratory, which studies how cells respond to sudden adverse changes in their surroundings, known as 'environmental stress'.