Emil Osann was born in Weimar, Germany on 25 May 1787 and went on to study medicine at nearby Jena. He received his doctorate in 1809 after submitting the thesis sistens saturni usum medicum maxime internum and afterwards was appointed junior physician at the Polyclinic Institute in Berlin. He was then appointed professor of physiology at the Berlin Medico-Surgical Military Academy in 1814, qualified to lecture the following year, and became associate professor in pharmacology in Berlin in 1818 and full professor in 1825. In 1820 he was elected to the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina and from 1833 until his death he served as director of the Polyclinic Institute.
Osann is particularly known for his research into the health benefits of mineral springs and his work marked the beginning of several decades of research in the area. His publications include Ideen zur Bearbeitung einer Geschichte der Physiologie: Vorwort und Einladung zu meinen öffentlichen Vorlesungen über Physiologie des Menschlichen Organismus (1815), Die Mineralquellen zu Kaiser-Franzensbad bei Eger (1822), and Physikalisch-medicinishe Darstellung der bekannten Heilquellen der vorzüglichsten Länder Europas (2 vols. 1829-32). Osann was also the nephew and son-in-law of eminent physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836).
Osann died in Berlin on 11 January 1842.