Sarah J. Weintraub

I am developing programmable DNA nanoparticles for precision applications in molecular biology, synthetic biology, and therapeutic delivery. By combining automated cloning, custom scaffold generation, and DNA origami design, my work explores how DNA nanostructures can be rationally engineered, mass-produced, and validated for functions ranging from targeted cargo delivery to in vivo gene regulation. I integrate computational tools with lab automation to streamline the design-build-test-learn cycle for complex DNA-based devices.

Current Projects

  1. PRISM Science Initiative: Developing a research program centered on programmable DNA systems and reproducible synthetic biology workflows. PRISM connects computational DNA design, including sequence level and structural design, with laboratory automation to operationalize design-build-test-learn cycles for DNA based devices.

PRISM Science Initiative: https://prismlab.framer.ai/

  1. Custom Scaffold Cloning: Implementing cloning strategies for the production of long single stranded DNA scaffolds used in DNA origami and DNA nanoparticle assembly. This work focuses on scaffold sequence design, optimization of vector architectures for ssDNA generation, and evaluation of production methods to support consistent yield and compatibility with downstream folding and assembly processes.

  2. High-Throughput Cloud Automation: Designing automated, cloud executed workflows for DNA nanoparticle construction in collaboration with the Chemical and Biological Innovation Cloud Lab. This project translates computational DNA designs into standardized, parallelized cloning and assembly protocols using laboratory automation platforms, enabling scalable experimental execution and systematic iteration across design variants.

Previous Experience

Doctor of Philosophy, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Worcester Polytechnic Institute, May 2025 Bachelor of Science, Microbiology and Cell Science University of Florida, Minor: Bioinformatics, May 2019

Publications

Weintraub, S. J., Li, Z., Nakagawa, C. L., Collins, J. H., & Young, E. M. (2024). Oleaginous yeast biology elucidated with comparative transcriptomics. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.28891

Peng, B., Weintraub, S. J., ... & Vickers, C. E. (2023). Integration of yeast episomal/integrative plasmid causes genotypic and phenotypic diversity and improved sesquiterpene production in metabolically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. ACS Synthetic Biology, 13(1), 141–156.

Collins, J. H., Kunyeit, L., Weintraub, S., Sharma, N., White, C., Haq, N., Anu-Appaiah, K. A., Rao, R. P., & Young, E. M. (2023). Genetic basis for probiotic yeast phenotypes revealed by nanopore sequencing. G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad093

Dobrindt, K., Zhang, H., Das, D., Abdollahi, S., Prorok, T., Ghosh, S., Weintraub, S., Genovese, G., Powell, S. K., Lund, A., & Akbarian, S. (2020). Publicly available hiPSC lines with extreme polygenic risk scores for modeling schizophrenia. Complex Psychiatry, 6(3–4), 68–82.

Contact Information

  • Please contact me by email: sweintraub@cmu.edu

My LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-j-weintraub

My github: https://github.com/sjtrauber/sjtrauber

personal website: https://sjtrauber.com/