Between 1966 and 1976 he built up the Department of Microbiology at Umeå University, where his research focused on mechanisms for bacterial antibiotic resistance. Boman combined physiological, molecular, biochemical and genetic methods in a way that was unique at that time. In 1976, Boman became professor of microbiology at Stockholm University where his work in moths identified the first antimicrobial peptides of animals in 1981.