Proteins expressed in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are subjected to a tight quality control. Terminally misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are retrotranslocated to the cytoplasm and degraded by proteasomes through a mechanism known as ER-associated degradation (ERAD). EDEM (ER degradation-enhancing alpha-mannosidase-like) protein is a type II membrane protein that localizes to the ER and is directly involved in ERAD. EDEM targets misfolded glycoproteins for degradation in an N-glycan-dependent manner and extracts misfolded glycoproteins from the calnexin cycle. The human EDEM gene maps to chromosome 3p.