Dr.-Ing. Cedric Schirmer

Work at ZHAW

Position

• Lecturer
• Deputy Head Section Bioprocess Technology

Focus

• Process engineering characterisation and development of bioreactors
• Bioprocess and fermentation engineering
• Scale-up of microbial and cell culture processes
• Single-use technology for biopharmaceutical manufacturing
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
• Cell culture technology, animal cells, human mesenchymal stem cells

Network

Membership of networks

DECHEMA

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5779-4337

Projects

• Valve qualification / Deputy project leader / completed
• Evaluation perfusion membrane / Team member / completed
• Human Embryonic Kidney cells (50 L) / Team member / completed
• Process development and biomass production of S. cerevisiae spiked with heavy water / Co-project leader / completed
• Evaluation of cell separation using the GEA kytero® Single Use Pharma Separator with disk stack technology / Project leader / completed
• Muscle generator – The key to unlock scalable and affordable cultivated meat production / Project leader / completed
• Process development for COVID-19 VLP vaccine production / Team member / completed
• Microbiome therapeutics / Deputy project leader / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Barth, I. et al. (2026) 'Enhancing reproducibility in mixing time determination of stirred tank reactors via automated analysis and standardized inter-laboratory trials', Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 110(1), p. 194. doi: 10.1007/s00253-026-13941-8.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2022) 'Single‐use technology for the production of cellular agricultural products : where are we today?', Chemie Ingenieur Technik, 94(12), pp. 2018–2025. doi: 10.1002/cite.202200092.
• Ott, V. et al. (2022) 'Qualification of a single‐use disk stack separator for cell separation in mammalian cell‐based antibody production', Chemie Ingenieur Technik, 94(12), pp. 1936–1943. doi: 10.1002/cite.202200096.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2021) 'An overview of drive systems and sealing types in stirred bioreactors used in biotechnological processes', Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. doi: 10.1007/s00253-021-11180-7.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2017) 'Standardized qualification of stirred bioreactors for microbial biopharmaceutical production processes', Chemie Ingenieur Technik, 89(12). doi: 10.1002/cite.201700039.
• Jossen, V. et al. (2016) 'Theoretical and practical issues that are relevant when scaling up hMSC microcarrier production processes', Stem Cells International, 2016(4760414). doi: 10.1155/2016/4760414.

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

• Seidel, S. et al. (2023) 'Computational fluid dynamics for advanced characterisation of bioreactors used in the biopharmaceutical industry : part I: literature review', in Ji, G. and Dong, J. (eds) Computational Fluid Dynamics - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications. London: IntechOpen, pp. 53–82. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.109848.
• Seidel, S. et al. (2023) 'Computational fluid dynamics for advanced characterisation of bioreactors used in the biopharmaceutical industry : part II: case studies', in Ji, G. and Dong, J. (eds) Computational Fluid Dynamics - Recent Advances, New Perspectives and Applications. London: IntechOpen, pp. 83–98. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.109849.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2020) 'How to produce mAbs in a cube-shaped stirred single-use bioreactor at 200 L scale', in Pörtner, R. (ed.) Animal cell biotechnology : methods and protocols. Springer, pp. 169–186. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0191-4_10.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2019) 'Systems for coupling and sampling', in Eibl, R. and Eibl, D. (eds) Single-use technology in biopharmaceutical manufacture. Hoboken: Wiley, pp. 53–68. doi: 10.1002/9781119477891.ch5.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2018) 'Development, engineering and biological characterization of stirred tank bioreactors', in Yeh, M.-K. and Chen, Y.-C. (eds) Biopharmaceuticals. London: IntechOpen, pp. 87–107. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.79444.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

Schirmer, C. et al. (2022) 'Qualification of a single-use disk stack separator for modern mAb upstream processing at pilot scale', in 27th ESACT Meeting, Lisbon, Portugal, 26-29 June 2022. ESACT, European Association for Animal Cell Technology.

Other publications

• Ott, V. et al. (2022) 'A new single-use disk stack separator for pilot scale CHO cell-based antibody productions', in ECI: Single-Use Technologies V: Building The Future, Marseille, France, 20-23 March 2022.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2020) 'Integration of chemical-optical oxygen and pH sensors in existing control units : cultivation monitoring in a glass bioreactor system with subsequently integrated sensor spots', PreSens Publications. Available at: https://www.presens.de/knowledge/publications/application-note/integration-of-chemical-optical-oxygen-and-ph-sensors-in-existing-control-units-1692.
• Werner, S. et al. (2019) 'Performance comparison of CHO-S cell cultivation and mAb production in the Allegro™ STR 200 single-use bioreactor and in conventional single-use bioreactor', in 26th ESACT Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5-8 May 2019.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2019) Recommendation for biological evaluation of bioreactor performance for microbial processes. 2. revised edition. Frankfurt am Main: DECHEMA, Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. Available at: https://dechema.de/dechema_media/Downloads/Positionspapiere/SingleUse_Microbial_ezl+2Ed+Sept2019-p-20005491.pdf.
• Rossi, L. et al. (2019) 'Proof of concept study for cultivation of strict anaerobes in a single-use wave-mixed bioreactor', in BioTech 2019 : Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Single-Use Technologies, Wädenswil, Switzerland, 2-4 July 2019. ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2019) 'Development of an universally useable single-use bioreactor for the benchtop scale', in BioTech 2019 : Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Single-Use Technologies, Wädenswil, Switzerland, 2-4 July 2019. ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2019) 'A universal stirred bioreactor for the development of biotherapeutics', in DECHEMA Himmelfahrtstagung: Intensification and digitalisation for integral bioprocessing, Hamburg, Germany, 27-29 May 2019. DECHEMA, Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie.
• Schirmer, C. and Eibl, D. (2017) 'Rührwerk für moderne Bioreaktoren', Transfer, 2017(2), p. 4. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-19304.
• Jossen, V. et al. (2016) 'Expansion of human adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells in a wave-mixed single-use bioreactor : a proof-of-concept', in BioTech 2016, Wädenswil, Switzerland, 5-8 September 2016.
• von Blarer, D. et al. (2016) 'Biological bioreactor characterization by means of an Escherichia coli model process', in BioTech 2016, Wädenswil, Switzerland, 5-8 September 2016.
• Jossen, V. et al. (2016) 'How to successfully scale up a microcarrier based expansion process of human mesenchymal stem cells from adipose tissue', in 4th BioProScale Symposium 2016, Berlin, Germany, 6-8 April 2016.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Schirmer, C. (2024) 'Implementation of an adaptive illumination strategy for algae growth in stirred systems', in Bioprocess Symposium, Bern, Switzerland, 7 November 2024.
• Schirmer, C. (2024) 'Magnetic levitation technology for stirred bioreactors : integration and evaluation', in Levitronix Bioprocessing Conference 2024, Boston, MA, USA, 20 June 2024. Available at: https://www.levitronix.com/app/uploads/2024/07/Cedric-Shirmer_1_1.mp4.
• Schirmer, C. (2022) 'Animal cell culture-based cellular agriculture : basics and challenges of clean meat production', in XVI. Biotechnet Summer School on Advanced Biotechnology, Innsbruck, Austria, 12-15 September 2022.
• Seidel, S., Schirmer, C. and Eibl, D. (2022) 'Integration of a drive system based on magnetic levitation technology to power a stirred bioreactor', in Levitronix Bioprocessing Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 2 June 2022. Available at: https://www.levitronix.com/app/uploads/2022/06/Stefan-2_1.mp4.
• Schirmer, C. (2020) 'Shear stress investigations on Levitronix single-use centrifugal pumps', in Levitronix Bioprocessing Conference, Live Webinar Part 2, 27 May 2020.
• Schirmer, C. and Kienle, K. (2019) 'Comparison of stirred single-use bioreactors : case study of an IgG production process', in BioTech 2019 : Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing and Single-Use Technologies, Wädenswil, Switzerland, 2-4 July 2019.
• Schirmer, C. (2019) 'Biological evaluation of bioreactor performance for microbial processes', in Knowledge Culture Workshop : Large-scale fermentation, Cramlington, United Kingdom, May 2019.
• Jossen, V. et al. (2017) 'Standardized expansion of human adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells (hASCs) in wave-mixed single-use bioreactors with one-dimensional motion', in ECI: Single Use Technologies II: Bridging Polymer Science to Bioprocess Applications, Tomar, Portugal, 7–10 May 2017. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9a61/98bcd2e950104f1457e8f0e7c7380323ebf5.pdf.
• Schirmer, C. et al. (2016) 'Standardized expansion of human mesenchymal stem cells in wave-mixed single-use bioreactors', in ILMAC, Basel, 2016.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

• Goepfert, Christiane; Blume, Grit; Faschian, Rebecca; Meyer, Stefanie; Schirmer, Cedric; Müller-Wichards, Wiebke; Müller, Jörg; Fischer, Janine; Feyerabend, Frank; Pörtner, Ralf, 2013. A modular flow-chamber bioreactor concept as a tool for continuous 2D- and 3D-cell culture. BMC Proceedings.7(Suppl 6),P87.
• Pörtner, Ralf; Goepfert, Christiane; Schirmer, Cedric; Hsu, Hao-Hsiang; Blume, Grit; Voigt, Miriam; Rapoport, Daniel Hans, 2016. Reaktionstechnische Charakterisierung von Bioreaktoren für die regenerative Medizin. In: Beckmann, D; Kaufhold, S, Hrsg., 18. Heiligenstädter Kolloquium: Technische Systeme für die Lebenswissenschaften. Heilbad-Heiligenstadt: Institut für Bioprozess- und Analysenmesstechnik e.V. S. 575-582. ISBN: 978-3-00-054165-0.

Other publications

Schirmer, Cedric; Eibl, Dieter, 2018. Shear stress investigations of the magnetically levitated single-use centrifugal pump PuraLev® 600SU using the protein shear stress model for lysozyme, Zurich, Levitronix GmbH.

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