For the past 12 years, the main focus of Dr. Langlois laboratory has been to investigate host intrinsic immune defenses that have a dedicated role in restricting retroviral infection, such as HIV, and zoonosis. The main focus of his research is a family of host-encoded proteins called APOBEC3 (A3) that have the ability to potently mutate viral DNA and restrict retroviruses as well as some other types of viruses. With the onset of the current coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Langlois has re-tooled his lab and re-focused his research efforts to develop new diagnostic tools including serological assays, new therapeutics and a plant-derived nasal spray vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID19.