SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma ("aTyr"), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address rare diseases, announced today the expansion of its Board of Directors with the addition of Mark Goldberg, M.D. Dr. Goldberg currently serves as senior advisor for medical and regulatory strategy at Synageva BioPharma Corporation, and was central to the development and approval of four therapies for rare diseases while at Genzyme.

"We are incredibly pleased to welcome Dr. Goldberg to our board of directors. He has an impressive track record in developing medicines for rare diseases and has successfully navigated the unique commercial and regulatory challenges associated with delivering these new treatments to patients in need," said John Mendlein, Ph.D., CEO and executive chairman of aTyr Pharma.

Dr. Goldberg brings nearly 20 years of experience developing and commercializing products to address unmet medical needs to his appointment. Prior to his current advisory role at Synageva, Dr. Goldberg was executive vice president, global medical and regulatory strategy at the company, with responsibility for product development, medical and regulatory affairs and the advancement of pipeline programs. He previously served as senior vice president of clinical development and global therapeutic group head for oncology, genetic and neurodegenerative diseases at Genzyme Corporation, where he was responsible for leading clinical development teams for all drugs in development in those therapeutic areas. While at Genzyme he played a central role in the development and approval of several therapies for rare diseases, including Fabrazyme®, Aldurazyme®, Myozyme® and Lumizyme®. Dr. Goldberg holds appointments at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute and has published more than 50 papers, with much of his scientific inquiry centering on gene expression and rare diseases. He received his AB (magna cum laude) from Harvard College and his M.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Medical School, where he is currently an associate professor.

About aTyr Pharma
aTyr Pharma is engaged in the discovery and clinical development of innovative medicines for patients suffering from severe rare diseases using its knowledge of Physiocrine biology, a newly discovered set of physiological modulators. The Company's lead candidate, Resolaris™, is a first-in-class intravenous protein therapeutic for the treatment of rare myopathies with an immune component. To protect this pipeline, aTyr built an intellectual property estate comprising 24 patents and over 200 pending patent applications that are solely owned or exclusively licensed by aTyr. aTyr's key programs are currently focused on severe, rare diseases characterized by immune dysregulation, for which there are currently limited or no treatment options. The Company was founded by Professors Paul Schimmel and Xiang-Lei Yang, two leading aminoacyl tRNA synthetase scientists at The Scripps Research Institute.

For more information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.

SOURCE aTyr Pharma