Isaac was born and raised in cold Fairbanks, Alaska. He attended college in sunny California at Stanford University, working under Barry Trost. Following his graduation from Stanford, he moved to New York City to continue his chemical education at Columbia University under James Leighton. He earned his Ph.D. in 2003, for his work on directed Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation and enantioselective Cu-catalyzed conjugate addition reactions. He then moved across the island to join the lab of Sam Danishefsky at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he worked on the synthesis of cancer cell migration inhibitors and HIV glycopeptide antigens.

In 2008 he began his independent career at Brandeis, where his work involves organic reaction development, directed evolution of glycoclusters and HIV vaccine design.