Classic limb patterning models and the work of Dennis Summerbell

Dennis Summerbell was a leading contributor to our understanding of limb patterning prior to the advent of molecular biology. He published several groundbreaking papers, including one that developed a key model for patterning the limb from the shoulder to the fingertips and another that presented the co-discovery of the effect of retinoids on limb morphogenesis. He brought detailed quantitative analyses to bear on these studies, as highlighted in two of his insightful papers published in the Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology, in which he provided elegant models that, today, remain relevant to limb patterning, as well as to many disciplines of developmental biology.