Sally Dunwoodie

Professor Sally Dunwoodie Deputy Director, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) Director, VCCRI Innovation Centre Head, Embryology and Congenital Heart Disease Research Professor Dunwoodie's research is focussed on understanding understanding genetic and environmental factors that affect mammalian embryogenesis and cause birth defects. Professor Dunwoodie established and leads the Chain Reaction Program in Congenital Heart Disease, the largest Australian genome sequencing initiative in congenital heart disease. The program is discovering the genetic causes of heart defects family by family, with the promise that genetic diagnosis of birth defects will become a routine part of clinical practice. Professor Dunwoodie is also a world leader in identifying causes of vertebral defects, having discovered six of the seven genes known to cause such defects. Professor Dunwoodie’s discoveries have already changed clinical practices and have led to genetic diagnostic tests being available worldwide. In 2017 Professor Dunwoodie’s team revealed a double breakthrough that has the potential to prevent some cases of recurrent miscarriage and multiple types of birth defects (Shi et al New England Journal of Medicine 201). They discovered that deficiency in NAD, a vital molecule that is required for hundreds of activities in all cells, causes recurrent miscarriage and multiple types of birth defects in humans and mice. These defects were completely prevented with supplementation of niacin (vitamin B3) during pregnancy in mice. These discoveries from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute are believed to be amongst Australia’s greatest ever in pregnancy research. Specific Research Keywords: Embryo, Embryonic Development, Birth Defects, Congenital Malformation, Environment, Gene-Environment Interaction, Heart, Vertebral Column, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Notch Signalling, Hypoxia, Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide, NAD, vitamin B3, niacin Summer Scholarships Available Contact Sally Dunwoodie directly at s.dunwoodie@victorchang.edu.au Honours, Independent Learning Project (ILP) and PhD Student Projects available Contact Sally Dunwoodie directly at s.dunwoodie@victorchang.edu.au embryo, genetics, and environment and, heart, congenital, birth defects, hypoxia, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (nad), niacinamide, Developmental Genetics (incl. Sex Determination), Animal Developmental and Reproductive Biology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Animal Cell and Molecular Biology, Fetal Development and Medicine, Cardiology (incl. Cardiovascular Diseases)