SAN DIEGO and HONG KONG, April 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. ("aTyr"), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address rare diseases, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. aTyr Pharma has applied to list its common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "LIFE".

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. will act as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, BMO Capital Markets Corp. will act as a lead manager for the proposed offering and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. will act as a co-manager for the proposed offering.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the preliminary prospectus, when available, may be obtained by contacting J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY, 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204, or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmchase.com; or by contacting Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY, 11717, by telephone at (800) 831-9146, or by email at prospectus@citi.com.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification of these securities under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

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. 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. Investors include Alta Partners; Cardinal Partners; Domain Associates; Polaris Partners; Sofinnova Ventures; and certain funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.; Federated Investors, Inc.; Deerfield; Rock Springs Capital Management; EcoR1 Capital; Sphera Global Healthcare; and four undisclosed institutional investors.

SOURCE aTyr Pharma, Inc.