Jonathan Howard is a cell geneticist who has made important contributions through his studies in rats to our understanding of immunogenetics — the interplay between the immune system and genetics. He also identified the transporters required for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I assembly, which opened up transport and assembly of membrane proteins as a new and exciting area of research.

His wide-ranging work included breeding congenic and recombinant strains of rat for use in MHC studies, as well as defining the MHC class I and class II regions at the molecular level. More recently, his research has concentrated on the role of immunity related GTPases in facilitating the resistance of mice to the protozoan pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii.

Jonathan has held the membership of and chaired several influential European scientific advisory boards, including the Medical Research Council. He is also the author of the book Darwin: A Very Short Introduction (2001), and has published a significant number of scientific papers.