Insa Feinkohl

Insa Feinkohl is a Professor at the Chair of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology within the Faculty of Health at the University of Witten/Herdecke. Her research focuses on risk factors for cognitive dysfunction and mental health in older adults, particularly post-surgery, with emphasis on metabolic and cognitive risk factors.

• Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Psychology (1^st class honors) – University of Dundee (2006-2009)
• Master of Science (MSc) in Psychology of Individual Differences (with distinction) – University of Edinburgh (2009-2010)
• PhD in Community Health Sciences – University of Edinburgh (2010-2014)
• Post Doc in Knowledge Construction Group – Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media, Tübingen (2014-2015)
• Postdoc in Molecular Epidemiology Group – Max Delbrück Center, Berlin (2015-2022)
• Habilitation in Molecular Epidemiology – Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin (2021)

Her research integrates medical biometry and epidemiology to study postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), delirium, and aging-related cognitive decline. Key areas include biomarker validation (e.g., leptin, interleukins), brain connectivity (dopaminergic networks, thalamus), and metabolic risk factors (diabetes, obesity). She contributed to the BioCog project, an EU-funded initiative for personalized risk prediction of postoperative cognitive impairment.

Her recent publications highlight trends in perioperative neuroscience, including brain mineralization, cytokine associations with neurocognitive disorders, and structural/functional imaging in delirium. Articles also explore metabolic syndrome, cognitive reserve, and delirium prediction models using machine learning.

Insa Feinkohl is affiliated with major academic societies, including the German Society for Epidemiology, German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, and the German University Association.