Fumiyo Ikeda aims to elucidate the roles of the catalytic protein HOIP (part of the E3 Ligase LUPAC) in Drosophila and to explain the roles of ubiquitination and ligase activities of mammalian HOIP in vivo. Moreover she is keen on identifying novel substrates of human HOIP proteins and clarification of their roles.

Since Ub plays such a wide variety of pathological functions including cancer, inflammation and neuronal diseases, Fumiyo Ikeda believes that the expected results will not only lead to a better understanding of functional role of HOIP but will also identify novel aspects of linear ubiquitination in human disease.

The European Research Council (ERC) is an institution, established by the European Commission to fund basic oriented research.

Over 3600 proposals were handed in for ERC grants in 2013. Since the start of the program, nine IMBA researchers received funding by the ERC.