David Isaacs was born in London and has an identical twin brother, Stephen, who is a child psychiatrist. They went to different schools and once swapped schools for a day. His mother was also a child psychiatrist and his father, Alick, discovered interferon in 1957.
David trained in general paediatrics in London and Sydney and in paediatric infectious diseases in Oxford. He moved to Sydney in 1989 to head a Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, but was the only member of the Department. He is Clinical Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney. His research is mainly in neonatal infections, respiratory viral infections and immunisation. In 2001-2, he did a post-graduate diploma in bioethics at Monash University and has been involved in teaching and writing about bioethics ever since. He loves writing and has published over 250 papers and 10 books on paediatric infectious diseases, neonatal infections, immunisations and ethics. He has also published 25 humorous articles. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.
David is married and has four grown-up children. He coached one son’s soccer team and managed another son’s cricket team for several years. He still plays violin in a local orchestra and loves theatre, art and music.