After graduating in Chemistry from the University Dortmund, Kay Hofmann earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Cologne for his work on lipid metabolism. For his postdoctoral work, he joined the newly formed bioinformatics group at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, where he worked on multi-domain proteins in ubiquitin- and cell-death pathways. He then joined a biotech start-up company as head of bioinformatics, where he was involved in the identification of drug targets and novel protein functionalities. In 2012, he joined the University of Cologne as a full professor for genetics and computational biology. His group is studying the evolution of multi-domain proteins and their function, with a particular focus on host-pathogen interactions involving ubiquitin-directed effectors.