Dr Sale aimed to identify and characterize genetic contributors to complex disease susceptibility. She was the co-PI of GARNET (the Genomics and Randomized Trials Network) grant which used participants from the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) trial to identify genetic variants associated with recurrent ischaemic stroke and combined vascular endpoints, gained insights into individual responses to vitamin B therapy, and developed predictive models of recurrent stroke, incorporating clinical and genetic information. She also used a genome-wide association study approach to identify and characterized genetic variants that contribute to type 2 diabetes susceptibility in African American Sea Islanders of coastal South Carolina and Georgia and identified variants contributing to lipoprotein subclasses - predictors of cardiovascular outcomes - measured using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). She was a collaborator with the REGARDS and MESA studies. She was an associate editor for Frontiers in Applied Genetic Epidemiology.