David Ish-Horowicz obituary

David Ish-Horowicz in 2002 in his laboratory at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute labs at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Photograph: none

My uncle David Ish-Horowicz, who has died aged 75 from a brain tumour, was a molecular biologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), now Cancer Research UK (CRUK), from the late 1970s.

He was one of the pioneers in the application of molecular biology to developmental genetics. His research career focused on unravelling the intricate mechanisms that govern how embryos turn into complex organisms. He utilised both drosophila (fruit fly) and vertebrate models to identify and analyse the molecular and genetic pathways that establish and regulate spatial organisation within embryos.