SAN DIEGO, May 5, 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 Grove Matsuoka, has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Product Programs and Planning. Mr. Matsuoka will drive the strategic elements of the company's development-stage programs, most notably development of the company's lead candidate, Resolaris™, as the company seeks to advance meaningful medicines that promote tissue homeostasis for patients with various severe and rare diseases through the clinic.

"As we continue to advance Resolaris™ in clinical development, we are excited to welcome Mr. Matsuoka to our team," said John Mendlein, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of aTyr Pharma. "It is important that as we develop our programs, that we make decisions in an efficient, yet thoughtful manner, to serve the best interests of all of our stakeholders. Grove brings a wealth of industry, strategic development and commercialization experience and will fill a critical role for our company as our programs advance and grow." 

"I am thrilled to be joining aTyr Pharma at this pivotal point in the company's progress towards advancing its pipeline," said Mr. Matsuoka.  "It will be very important to optimally prioritize our development of programs and, with our deep scientific knowledge of Physiocrine pathways, I believe we have the potential to ultimately commercialize life-changing therapies for a broad range of severe diseases that currently have limited or no treatment options."

In Mr. Matsuoka's most recent role as Senior Vice President, Commercialization at CoDa Therapeutics, Inc., he led the development of commercialization plans for novel cellular gap junction modulating platform technology through in-depth assessment of the market, competitive environment, regulatory and market access hurdles. Prior to that, from 1995 to 2007, he worked in various positions at Amgen, Inc., most recently as Director, Medical Affairs, Strategic Planning and Operations, where he established and managed the strategic and operational function for the newly formed Medical Affairs organization. Mr. Matsuoka was also Clinical Research Project Team Leader for an FC Fusion Program while at Amgen.  He received his M.B.A. from Boston College and his B.A. in Microbiology and Immunology from University of California, Berkeley.

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 over 70 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. 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.

Contact:
Mark Johnson
Senior Director, Investor Relations 
mjohnson@atyrpharma.com  
858-223-1163

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SOURCE aTyr Pharma, Inc.