SAN DIEGO, March 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address severe rare diseases, today announced that Sanjay Shukla, MD, MS, has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Shukla will lead aTyr's clinical efforts to advance its Physiocrine biology therapeutic intervention points and strategically develop meaningful medicines that promote tissue homeostasis for patients with various severe and rare diseases.

"As we continue to advance Physiocrine-based product candidates in clinical development, we are excited to welcome Dr. Shukla to our team, and to have him join our efforts of advancing  innovative therapeutics, based on new biology, to patients in need," said John Mendlein, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of aTyr Pharma. "Over the last few months, we have had the pleasure of working with Sanjay as an external advisor on data analysis of our Resolaris™ adult FSHD clinical study.  Sanjay's deep experience with clinical development, data analysis and statistics, along with his background in both biotech and big pharma led clinical trials, across multiple therapeutic areas, including rare disease, provides us with a unique set of skills that complement our talented clinical development and operations teams.  We look forward to his contributions in leading the development of Physiocrine-based medicines."

"I am excited to join aTyr Pharma, a promising company led by a highly talented and complementary team that I've had the privilege of getting to know intimately over the course of the past couple months," said Dr. Shukla. "With its deep scientific knowledge of Physiocrine pathways, an exciting Resolaris program and a variety of clinical development opportunities to pursue, the company has significant potential for growth as it develops Resolaris and other Physiocrine-based therapies for a broad range of severe diseases that currently have limited treatment options."

In Dr. Shukla's most recent role as Vice President and Global Head of Integrated Medical Services for Novartis, he led global medical affairs operations, with oversight for all pharma general medicines therapies, both inline and in development. These included brands such as Gilenya^™, Cosentyx^™, and Entresto^™. In addition, Dr. Shukla led the creation and development of the Real World Evidence Center for Excellence as well as incubating the Digital Strategy group within Global Medical Affairs. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer of RxMd, a clinical development consultancy that assisted in advancing proof of concept for early stage drug candidates. Prior to that Dr. Shukla served in a variety of clinical development, data analytics and drug safety roles at Vifor Pharma and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Shukla received his MD from Howard University, and his MS in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Maryland.

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 potential first-in-class intravenous protein therapeutic for the treatment of rare myopathies with an immune component. Resolaris is currently in a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in adult patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD); a Phase 1b/2 trial in adult patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophy 2B (LGMD2B or dysferlinopathies) or FSHD; and a Phase 1b/2 trial in patients with an early onset form of FSHD.  To protect this pipeline, aTyr built an intellectual property estate comprising 45 issued or allowed patents and over 240 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, Ph.D., and Xiang-Lei Yang, Ph.D., two leading aminoacyl tRNA synthetase scientists at The Scripps Research Institute. For more information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act.  Forward-looking statements are usually identified by the use of words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans," "projects," "seeks," "should," "will," and variations of such words or similar expressions.  We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by such safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements and are making this statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor provisions.  These forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the potential of Resolaris, the ability of the Company to undertake certain development activities (such as clinical trial enrollment and the conduct of clinical trials) and accomplish certain development goals, and the timing of initiation of additional clinical trials and of reporting results from our clinical trials reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made.  Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved.  Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control including, without limitation, risks associated with the discovery, development and regulation of our Physiocrine-based product candidates, as well as those set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and in our other SEC filings.  Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE aTyr Pharma, Inc.