aTyr Pharma Presents at American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Meeting

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE), a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of innovative medicines based on novel immunological pathways, today announced a presentation at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Meeting in San Diego, California from October 16 - 20, 2018.  

Presentation: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 from 6:30 to 6:45 pm (PDT)

Title: “Bi-allelic mutations in Phe-tRNA synthetase identified from four families are associated with a multi-system disease and support ex-translational function”

Presenter: Zhiwen Xu, Ph.D., aTyr Pharma, Inc.

Conclusions:

• Mutations have been increasingly identified in aminoacyl tRNA synthetases which are associated with various serious disease states.
• This presentation highlights a new class of mutations in Phe-tRNA synthetase (FARS) which do not affect protein synthesis, but are associated with multi-system disease with common features of hypotonia and interstitial lung disease with cholesterol pneumonitis. 
• These results support a disease mechanism independent of protein translation and suggest that this FARS activity is essential for normal function in multiple organs, particularly lung and brain.

About aTyr
aTyr is a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of innovative medicines based on novel immunological pathways.  aTyr’s research and development efforts are concentrated on a newly discovered area of biology, the extracellular functionality of tRNA synthetases. aTyr has built a global intellectual property estate directed to a potential pipeline of protein compositions derived from 20 tRNA synthetase genes. aTyr is focused on the therapeutic translation of the Resokine pathway, comprised of extracellular proteins derived from the histidyl tRNA synthetase gene family. ATYR1923 is a clinical-stage product candidate which binds to the neuropilin-2 receptor and is designed to down-regulate immune engagement in interstitial lung diseases and other immune-mediated diseases. For more information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.

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