Leiden, 11 September 2026. BIMINI Biotech and Radboudumc have been awarded a Health Holland SME grant for AUTO-WASP, a collaborative project exploring a novel therapeutic approach targeting the Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein (WASp) in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
The €532,292 project brings together BIMINI Biotech, as project lead, and the research group of Assistant Professor Marije Koenders at the Department of Rheumatology and Laboratory of Experimental Rheumatology at Radboudumc.
Exploring WASp in autoimmune disease
WASp is an important regulator of immune-cell function and cytoskeletal dynamics, but remains largely unexplored as a therapeutic target in autoimmune disease. AUTO-WASP will further develop BIMINI’s proprietary small-molecule WASp modulators and investigate their potential as first-in-class treatments for autoimmune disorders.
The project addresses the continued need for differentiated treatment approaches in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, where a substantial proportion of patients do not achieve adequate or sustained disease control with existing therapies.
Dr. Digvijay Gahtory, CEO and co-founder of BIMINI Biotech, said the collaboration expands the potential of BIMINI’s WASp platform beyond oncology. Assistant Professor Marije Koenders highlighted the opportunity to combine BIMINI’s drug discovery expertise with Radboudumc’s knowledge of autoimmune disease biology.
AUTO-WASP aims to establish a preclinical foundation for a new class of WASp-targeting therapies across autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases.
Collaboration project HH-PPS-25189-MKB is co-funded by PPP subsidy awarded by Health Holland to stimulate public-private partnerships.
About BIMINI Biotech
BIMINI Biotech is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company based in Leiden, the Netherlands, developing first-in-class small-molecule therapeutics targeting WASp in oncology and autoimmune disease.
About Radboudumc
Radboud university medical center is a university medical centre in Nijmegen focused on patient care, research and education, with research programmes spanning disease mechanisms, new treatments and data-driven healthcare.