aTyr Pharma, Inc., a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of Physiocrine-based therapeutics to address severe, rare diseases, announced the issuance of US Patent Number 9,428,743, which represents the successful completion of an important aTyr milestone – the issuance of patents that cover Physiocrines derived from all 20 human tRNA synthetases. In addition, the patent portfolio covers all of aTyr's three current programs in three different therapeutic areas.

"The USPTO issuance of our '743 patent represents one example of the many efforts of our scientists to meticulously explore and validate this new biology that is generating a pipeline of therapeutics based on Physiocrines," said John Mendlein, Ph.D., CEO aTyr Pharma. "From our pioneering scientific efforts, we established an extensive intellectual property estate to protect fundamental discoveries of innovative product opportunities in immunology and beyond, which is rare for a single company or organization to amass this type of patent portfolio. These achievements represent a significant value driver for our company and our stakeholders as we extend our protection to Physiocrine biology from 20 out of 20 human tRNA synthetases."

aTyr's global patent estate includes over 175 issued or allowed patents owned or exclusively licensed by aTyr and its Hong Kong subsidiary, Pangu BioPharma Limited. This patent estate highlights aTyr's unique leadership position in this emerging area of biology.  aTyr's achievements build on the important and innovative research from the laboratory of aTyr's founders Dr. Paul Schimmel and Dr. Xiang-Lei Yang at The Scripps Research Institute, which continues to be a source of important innovation. These patents encompass important therapeutic modalities including composition of matter claims to the protein therapeutics, polynucleotide based therapeutics, antibodies and therapeutic methods of use.

Physiocrines are naturally occurring human proteins that possess novel in vivo biological activity as extracellular signaling molecules.  These proteins are derived from the extracellular signaling regions or alternatively spliced variants of tRNA synthetases that modulate a range of cellular activities to maintain homeostasis. They represent a new therapeutic class and novel targets in immunology that may potentially yield innovative medicines for patients with many different types of diseases.