Robert Hancock and Host Defense Peptides: What’s in a Name?

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.