Richard Jackson has made major contributions to cell biology, focusing on the moment at which ribosomes within the cell begin to translate the cell’s genetic instructions, in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA), into protein products. Understanding how the cell regulates this translation process has significant implications for new therapies in cancer and a range of viral diseases. Eleven different eukaryotic initiation factors, or eIFs, participate in regulating translation, and Richard has developed standard methods of studying their interactions in cultured cells. He has explored how these factors enable the ribosome to select the correct initiating site by scanning from one end of an mRNA molecule. He has also investigated ‘internal ribosome entry segments’ (IRESs) in both cellular and viral mRNA where ribosomes initiate translation directly. Richard continues to study the way IRESs enable viruses to subvert the host’s protein production machinery.