He received his Ph.D. in botany in 1959 from ETH Zurich under the supervision of Albert Frey-Wyssling and then became a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology with James Bonner.

[1][3] In 1963, Birnstiel was recruited by Conrad Waddington to a faculty position in the genetics department at the University of Edinburgh, where he remained until 1972, advancing to the rank of professor.

[3] Zurich was the site of his work on purification of histone genes, which led to one of the first discoveries of an enhancer element which he termed the "Modulator".

[6] In 2013 Intercell merged with another European biotech, Vivalis, to create a successor company Valneva that focuses on vaccine development.

[2][3] In 2017, the Max Birnstiel Foundation was created to promote training and career development of young researchers in the field of molecular life sciences.