[1] He subsequently conducted research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

In 1989, Tilman Schirmer joined the Biozentrum, University of Basel, initially as a group leader and was appointed as Associate Professor of Structural Biology in 1997.

[2] Tilman Schirmer investigates the mechanism of action of bacterial proteins based on their spatial structures, which are determined using X-ray crystallography.

This has provided insights into light harvesting in photosynthetic antenna complexes, the allosteric regulation of phosphofructokinase and the translocation of small molecules through the porins of the outer membrane.

As of 2013, Tilman Schirmer’s research group[3] at the Biozentrum in Basel is studying the mechanisms of signal transduction of the messenger substrate cyclic di-GMP and the structure-function relationships of bacterial effector proteins with AMP-transferase activity.