Bright, hard-working and curious individual. Excited to explore new technologies in genetics and alternative energy as it pertains to climate solutions. Ultimately wants a career as a Bioinformatician studying sustainable energy.
Doctor of Philosophy, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
expected graduation: May 2025
Bachelor of Science, Microbiology and Cell Science
University of Florida
Minor: Bioinformatics
Young Lab, Chemical Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Graduate Research Assistant with Dr. Eric M. Young
Aug. 2021-present
Research Highlights:
- Developed machine learning method to compare multiple yeasts transcriptomics for on-boarding non-model organisms for genetic engineering for healthcare and sustainable energy.
- Transcriptomics, metabolism, comparative genomics
- Improved and sustained genome assembler, Prymetime, by expanding utility to bacterial organisms and accessibility to HPC in addition to cloud providers.
- Collaborations from this work:
- Integration of episomal/integrative plasmids causes the genotypic and phenotypic diversity in metabolically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- Genetic basis for probiotic yeast phenotypes revealed by nanopore sequencing
Center for Psychiatric Genetics
NorthShore University HealthSystem
Research Assistant with Dr. Jubao Duan
Sept. 2019-Aug. 2021
Research Highlights:
- Cloning with Lentivirus plasmid to increase editing efficiency
- Editing and analysis of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) lines with ABEmax to target
- BAG5 for further understanding of the molecular basis of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders
- Analysis of RNA-seq data and creating protocols in R for designing pegRNAs
University of Florida
Plant Biotechnology and Biochemistry Lab
Independent Researcher with supervisory of Dr. Thomas A. Colquhoun
Jan. 2017-Aug. 2019
Research Highlights:
- Big Data analysis comparing Lilium volatile emission and transcriptome accumulation across genotypes for volatile biosynthesis elucidation
- Awarded grant as University Scholar
- Presented research at the 2018 Florida Genetics Symposium
- Presented research at the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium
- Genotyping and phenotyping transgenic knockdown petunias
- Volatile collections of 4-Methyl-5-Vinylthiazole abundance for caladium cultivar screening
- Measured anthocyanin levels using spectrophotometry on tomato
University of Florida
Emerging Pathogens Institute
Undergraduate Research Assistant with supervisory of Dr. Afsar Ali Research
Aug. 2016-Dec 2016
Highlights:
- Cultured the pathogenic bacteria Vibrio cholerae
- Training through AALAS Learning Library (transcript available upon request)
University of Florida
Institute of Aging
Undergraduate Research Assistant with supervisory of Dr. Shinichi Someya Research
Aug. 2015-Dec. 2015
Highlights:
- Tested Glutathione S-Transferase’s (GST) role to maintain hearing function and GST deficiency which promotes oxidative stress
- Examined cisplatin-induced cochlear cell damage and early onset of hearing loss in mice
- Animal handling training
SKILLS
Software proficiencies: R, Python, Unix, Bash
Bioinformatics analysis: NGS data processing, RNA-seq, functional genomics and annotation, machine
learning and data science, pipeline development and workflow management, database management,
computing infrastructure (HPC and cloud computing)
Basic research experience: base editing techniques in iPSC, sanger Sequencing, iPSC and tissue culture
maintenance, generalized and specialized PCR techniques, bacterial expression of recombinant protein,
nucleotide isolation and manipulation, protein purification and manipulation, volatile compound collection, mouse training/handling
PUBLICATIONS
Weintraub, S.J., Li, Z., Nakagawa, C.L., Collins, J.H. and Young, E.M. (2025), 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.
Keating, K. W., van Zyl, E. M., Collins, J. H., Nakagawa, C., Weintraub, S. J., Coburn, J. M., & Young, E. M. (2023). Phenotypic and genomic evidence for transparent cellulose, metabolic diversity, and stable cellulose production in the Acetobacteraceae. bioRxiv, 2023-08.
Joseph H Collins, Lohith Kunyeit, Sarah Weintraub, Nilesh Sharma, Charlotte White, Nabeeha Haq, K A Anu-Appaiah, Reeta P Rao, Eric M Young, Genetic basis for probiotic yeast phenotypes revealed by nanopore sequencing, G3 Genes | Genomes | Genetics, 2023;, jkad093, https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad093
Dobrindt K, Zhang H, Das D, Abdollahi S, Prorok T, Ghosh S, Weintraub S, Genovese G, Powell SK, Lund A, Akbarian S. Publicly available hiPSC lines with extreme polygenic risk scores for modeling schizophrenia. Complex psychiatry. 2020;6(3-4):68-82.
PRESENTATIONS
Poster presentation: Weintraub SJ, Li Z, Nakagawa CL, Young EM, “Oleaginous yeast genetic tool elucidation using comparative transcriptomic,” Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology/European Conference on Computational Biology, Lyon, France, July, 2023.
Flash talk: “Omics characterizes the genetic basis of non-model organisms,” Day of Scholarship and Learning, Flash talk presented at WPI, Worcester, MA, March 2023.
Flash talk: “Yeasts for Sustainable Energy,” NSF Research Traineeship Annual Meeting, Flash talk presented at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, October 2022.
Poster presentation: Weintraub SJ, Li Z, Nakagawa CL, Young EM, “Comparative transcriptomics provides genetic tools for metabolic engineering in extremophile oleaginous yeasts”, Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, Madison, WI, July, 2022.
Poster presentation: Weintraub, Sarah J., Johnson, Timothy S., Colquhoun, Thomas A., (2018, October). Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis for Comparative Metabolomics in Lilium. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Florida Genetics Symposium, Gainesville, FL
Poster presentation: Weintraub, Sarah J., Johnson, Timothy S., Colquhoun, Thomas A., (2019, April). Leveraging System Biology Approaches to Study Lilium Floral Volatile Production. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the UF Undergraduate Research Symposium, Gainesville, FL
Poster presentation: Weintraub, Sarah J., Garner, Drake M. G., Burrell, Samantha R., Colquhoun, Thomas A., (2019, April). Scent Science. Poster presentation for “Suds and Science” event promoting science communication, Gainesville, FL
AWARDS
CEDAR Fellow Aug. 2022-July 2024
JustT Fellow Aug. 2022-July 2023
Best Poster from 4th Annual Suds and Science Apr. 2019
University Scholars Program Aug. 2018-May 2019
Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Aug. 2015-May 2109
MEMBERSHIP
Epsilon Sigma Alpha Aug. 2017-May 2019
Networking chair Aug. 2018-May 2019
Philanthropy chairAug. 2017-May 2018
UF Honey Bee Club Aug. 2017-May 2018
Signing Gators Aug. 2013-May 2019Microbiology Club Aug. 2017-May 2018
Florida Crew Aug. 2015-May 2017
Alumni and Family Event Coordinator June 2016-May 2017
Southeastern Champions 2016
6th placed at Nationals
VOLUNTEER
Science fair judge: volunteer with Alachua County School board
Science education: helped teach elementary school children biotechnology concepts with ExploringPlants
Guardian Angels: work with highly skilled German Shepherds to be placed with soldiers with PTSD
Jungle Friends: primate sanctuary providing care for New World monkeys retired from lab research,
expets, or who have been confiscated by the authorities
Millcreek Farm: nonprofit sanctuary for old, abused, and abandoned horses
Road clean-up of Gainesville area
RELEVANT COURSES
Molecular Genetics
Organic Chemistry
Biochemistry
Principles of Microbiology
Bioinformatics
Bacterial and Viral Pathogens
Python Programming
Bacterial Genome Analysis
Advanced Microbiology Lab
Genetical Ethics
Plant Molecular Biology
Physics
Statistics
REFERENCES
