Dr. Laurent Brard is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine, chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, director of the basic research laboratory of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and full member of the Simmons Cancer Institute at SIU.

Dr. Brard is a nationally and internationally recognized gynecologic oncologist. He has published extensively in this field, including in the areas of molecular and cancer biology, pre-clinical drug development and novel treatments. His clinical focus is on the treatment of women's cancers. He has conducted investigator-initiated and participated in national (through the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), now NRG Oncology) clinical trials of novel therapeutics with an emphasis on recurrent ovarian cancers. His research interests span five areas: (1) Gynecologic Cancer Health Disparities, (2) Biomarker Discovery in Gynecological Cancer, (3) Cancer Drug Discovery and Development (based on natural or synthetic drugs and drug re-purposing), (4) Ovarian Cancer Genomics (potentially leading to new biomarkers and druggable targets) and (5) Novel therapeutics - clinical trials for gynecologic cancers. He has been the recipient of several NIH and foundation grants to pursue these areas of research. Most recently he was principal investigator at the SIU School of Medicine for a recently completed P20 CA192987 NIH/NCI grant addressing Rural Cancer Health Disparities.