Heinemann leads an interdisciplinary lab of approximately 12 graduate students and post-doctoral scholars.

[6] Until 2019, he served as the chairman of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute,[7][8] was a board member of the Dutch Origins Center[9] and the coordinator of EU ITN project MetaRNA.

In 2003, he obtained a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering (summa cum laude) from the RWTH Aachen University, after which he joined the Bioprocess lab of ETH Zurich as a postdoc.

In 2006, he joined the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology[12] of ETH Zurich as a group leader in the research unit of Uwe Sauer.

Together with his lab members, he has made the following major contributions to the fundamental understanding of metabolism: His lab developed new technologies and resources for metabolic studies on the single cell level and proteomics: Overall, Heinemann has authored or co-authored about 90 peer-reviewed scientific articles.