Dubowitz graduated Doctor of Medicine from the University of Cape Town in 1954,[5][4] and moved to the United Kingdom in April 1954 to gain some clinical experience, and culture and theatre.
[3] Two medical conditions are named after him, Dubowitz syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by microcephaly, growth retardation and a characteristic facial appearance of unknown genetic cause; and Dubowitz disease, a particular form of spinal muscular atrophy, a severe neuromuscular disorder affecting mainly infants and children.
A medical and research institution at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, bears his name (the Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre).
An interest in research followed, studying for an MD thesis on muscular dystrophy in childhood, in 1960 at the University of Sheffield, where he would eventually stay for the next 13 years.
The thesis was based on Dubowitz's pioneering histochemical studies and sponsored by Professor Everson Pearse, on developing and diseased muscle.
[3] In 1973, Dubowitz applied and received the Chair of Paediatrics and Neonatal Medicine at the Postgraduate Medical School of Hammersmith Hospital, now part of Imperial College London.
Dubowitz held a clinic in cystic fibrosis and noticed a baby girl born at full term at Jessop Hospital who weighed around 3 to 4lbs.
Dubowitz being interested in the case, through his cystic fibrosis clinic, researched all the different face shapes within syndromes of dwarfism and found that none matched.