RA1/4diger Flaig studied Biology at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) where he obtained a Sc.D. degree, followed by a Ph.D. degree from the German Cancer Research Center. After postdoctoral work at the Universities of Giessen and Heidelberg he trained as a patent attorney and is now handling biotech patent applications for the European Patent Office in Munich. From 2003 to 2005 he developed and repeatedly taught a course on bioinformatics programming for biology students.