Dr. Ide is the director of Western Michigan University's Environmental Research Center and Environmental Institute (www.wmich.edu/env).

His research, carried out in tissue culture, focuses on the following issues:

1. how cytokines, such as the interleukin-1 system molecules, regulate neural circuit formation during early brain development,
2. how environmental contaminants, such as heavy metals, pesticides, or PCBs, alter normal neural development by disrupting neural immune and neuroendocrine function, and
3. how the activities of specific genes serve as biomarkers of exposure and damage in studies that assess risks associated with the presence of pollutants in aquatic ecosystems.