Professor Sally Dunwoodie is an acclaimed embryologist and geneticist who has made major contributions to our mechanistic understanding of embryogenesis and the causation of congenital malformations of the skeleton and heart. Her insights into how environmental factors impact gene activity in the embryo are foundational, and in particular how gene variants interact with environmental insults including fetal hypoxia and maternal diet, to cause congenital malformation. Her discoveries have led to new diagnostics and compellingly show the way to a future where congenital malformations in tens of thousands if not millions of babies worldwide can be prevented.