In 1851 he earned his doctorate from the University of Würzburg, where he was a student of Rudolf Virchow.

Two of his better known students were surgeon Theodor Kocher (1841-1917) in Zurich, and dermatologist Albert Neisser (1855-1916) in Breslau.

In 1860 Biermer was the first to describe a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 5-year old Maria Speyer.

He wrote about the disease in an article titled Über eine eigentümliche Form von progressiver, perniciöser Anaemie.

He called it "pernicious anemia" because of the disease's insidious course, and because it was deemed to be untreatable at the time.