Michael Anton Biermer

Michael Anton Biermer (October 18, 1827 - October 15, 1892) was a German internist who was a native of Bamberg. In 1851 he earned his doctorate from the University of Würzburg, where he was a student of Rudolf Virchow. Later he was a professor at Bern (1861), Zurich (1867) and Breslau (1874-91). Two of his better known students were surgeon Theodor Kocher (1841-1917) in Zurich, and dermatologist Albert Neisser (1855-1916) in Breslau.

Biermer is remembered for his 1872 description of a disorder he called "pernicious anemia". 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. In 1849, Thomas Addison described the same disease, however Biermer's description was much more comprehensive. Historically, pernicious anemia has also been called Biermer anemia.