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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Peptide-based Identification of Functional Motifs and their Binding Partners
Published on: June 30, 2013
Robert Hancock and Host Defense Peptides: What's in a Name?
1PulmoScience Lab, Department of Pulmonology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Antimicrobial peptides (also known as host defense peptides; HDPs) have been a topic of intense research in the past decades, stimulated by the rise in antibiotic resistance. This Viewpoint article highlights the contribution of Robert E. W. Hancock to HDP research, who was among the first to recognize the potential of activities of HDPs that are independent of their direct antimicrobial activity, such as activities related to immunity and wound repair. To this end he developed immunomodulatory peptides, focused on the antibiofilm activity of HDPs, and contributed to novel approaches to develop new classes of peptides.
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