Sebastian Zinn, MD, PhD, is an anesthesiologist and clinician-scientist whose academic training spans pharmaceutical sciences, medicine, translational clinical pharmacology, and perioperative neuroscience. He completed academic training in pharmaceutical sciences and medicine in Germany before earning a PhD in translational clinical pharmacology with a focus on pain research. He subsequently trained as an anesthesiologist in Germany.
Since 2024, Dr. Zinn has been a Research Scholar at Columbia University in the laboratory of Professor Paul Garcia, where his work focuses on neuroanesthesia, perioperative brain monitoring, and quantitative electroencephalography (EEG). His academic interests bridge clinical anesthesiology, pharmacology, neurophysiology, and data-driven approaches to understanding brain states during anesthesia and surgery.
A focus of Dr. Zinn’s current work is the perioperative relevance of cannabis and THC exposure. This project brings together his background in pain research and clinical pharmacology with EEG-based assessment of anesthetic brain states. He is particularly interested in applying Bayesian statistical approaches because they provide a principled framework for modeling uncertainty, integrating hierarchical clinical data, and estimating patient- and group-level effects in complex perioperative datasets. Through this work, he aims to better understand how THC may influence anesthetic requirements, EEG signatures, perioperative physiology, and recovery.
His broader research interests include the use of raw and processed EEG to characterize anesthetic drug effects, perioperative brain dynamics, and patient-specific responses to anesthesia. He is particularly interested in practical workflows for collecting EEG data from clinical monitoring devices and translating these data into clinically meaningful information for care, teaching, and research.
His previous work also includes a DFG-supported project on perioperative anxiety assessment as a potential risk factor for postoperative neurocognitive disorders. Across his clinical and academic work, Dr. Zinn aims to support a more individualized, pharmacologically informed, and physiology-guided approach to anesthesia care, with particular attention to the brain as a central target organ of perioperative medicine.
