Mr. Clarke is managing general partner of Cardinal Partners. He entered the venture industry in 1982 with DSV Partners, a pioneer venture capital fund formed in 1968. John led DSV’s health care and life sciences efforts and was a co-founder and served as interim CEO of numerous successful companies including Alkermes, Arris Pharmaceuticals, DNX and Cubist Pharmaceuticals. As managing partner at DSV in later years, Mr. Clarke led the firm’s evolution into Cardinal Partners. Building on two decades in venture capital, he co-founded Cardinal Partners in 1997. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals and Verastem . He has also served as a director for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), TechRx (acquired by NDCHealth) and Visicu (acquired by Phillips Electronics). Mr. Clarke is also a Trustee of Hands Together, a non-profit organization that provides health care and education support to the needy in Haiti. Prior to his venture capital career, John worked for the General Electric Company in various sales and marketing positions. Mr. Clarke received his A.B. in economics and biology from Harvard University and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Timothy P. Coughlin has served as a director since April 2017. Mr. Coughlin served as Chief Financial Officer of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. from September 2006 to February 2017, where he previously served as Vice President, Controller. Prior to joining Neurocrine in 2002, he was with Catholic Health Initiatives, a nationwide integrated healthcare delivery system, where he served as Vice President, Financial Services. Mr. Coughlin also served as a Senior Manager in the Health Sciences practice of Ernst & Young LLP and its predecessors from 1989 to 1999. Mr. Coughlin currently serves on the board of directors of Retrophin, Inc. and Fate Therapeutics, Inc., two biotechnology companies where he chairs the audit committees and is also a member of the compensation committee and nominating committee. Mr. Coughlin holds a master’s degree from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree from Temple University. Mr. Coughlin is a certified public accountant in both California and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Schimmel is an Ernst and Jean Hahn Professor at The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. He was formerly the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Department of Biology at MIT. The Schimmel laboratory’s major research activities have concentrated on the decoding of genetic information, with emphasis on the rules of the universal genetic code which are established through aminoacylation reactions catalyzed by a group of enzymes known as aminoacyl tRNA synthetases. The latter are believed by many to be among the first enzymes to arise on this planet in the early stages of the evolution of life.  In addition to founding aTyr, Dr. Schimmel has founded or co-founded a number of groundbreaking biotechs including Alkermes, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Metabolon, Repligen Corp., Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.  He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Schimmel graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, holds Ph.D. at Cornell University and MIT and did post doctoral work at Stanford University.

Sanjay S. Shukla, M.D., M.S. has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a board member since November 2017. Dr. Shukla served as our Chief Medical Officer from March 2016 to November 2017. From April 2015 to March 2016, Dr. Shukla worked in an advisory capacity for a number of companies, including as a consultant to aTyr from January 2016 to March 2016. Prior to that, from October 2012 to April 2015, Dr. Shukla served as Vice President and Global Head of Integrated Medical Services for Novartis, a biopharmaceutical company, where he led global medical affairs operations, with oversight for all pharma general medicines therapies, both inline and in development. Dr. Shukla served as Chief Executive Officer of RXMD, a clinical development consultancy that assisted in advancing proof of concept for early stage drug candidates, from April 2009 to September 2012. Prior to that, Dr. Shukla served in a variety of clinical development, data analytics and drug safety roles at Vifor Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company, and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Vifor Pharma). Dr. Shukla received his M.D. from Howard University College of Medicine and his Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Maryland.

Sara L. Zaknoen, M.D., has served as a director since May 2021. Since June 2014, through her company, Zed Strategic Consulting, Dr. Zaknoen has worked as a clinical drug development consultant with large pharma and biotech companies across multiple disease indications. Previously, Dr. Zaknoen held Chief Medical Officer positions at several biotechnology companies, including Ignyta, Inc., Polynoma LLC, Tragara Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cabrellis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Prior to that, Dr. Zaknoen served as Executive Director of Phase 2/3 Clinical Oncology Research at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, where she provided oversight for a number of important marketed therapies, such as Gleevec®, Tasigna® and Exiade®. This included supervising the execution of clinical studies, including registrational trials, and involvement with new drug applications and label expansion activities. As Director of Clinical Oncology Research at Schering-Plough (now Merck) she was the lead physician on the Temodar® program, supporting its approval and launch. Additional professional experience includes: Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center; Director of Experimental Therapeutics at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Western Pennsylvania Cancer Institute; and Medical Staff Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Zaknoen completed her residency, internship and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Minnesota. She received her M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine and her B.S. in chemistry and biology from Valparaiso University.