At the same time, the field of innate immunity rapidly expanded, benefitting from the genetic tools available in Drosophila in the search to understand how insect immunity recognizes and signals following infection. From these initial studies, a number of insect antimicrobial peptides and other immune proteins were characterized, and these peptides have been used extensively as readouts of immune challenge. Owing to Boman's discovery, immune-inducible peptides were used to identify competent or deficient immune responses, ultimately leading to the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine being awarded to Jules Hoffmann for his work on insect immune signalling.[5]