San Diego, CA, August 31, 2009 - Chulho Park, Ph. D., Head of Process Sciences at aTyr Pharma, a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on discovery and development of a newly emerging class of natural biotherapeutics, will be a featured speaker at Bio Korea 2009. On September 18, 2009, Dr. Park will present his talk “Selecting the Optimal Biotherapeutic Candidate for Development” at the conference, taking place in Seoul, Korea. In his presentation, Dr. Park will discuss key steps required to create a development process for a new biotherapeutic, and how he has applied his experience to optimizing the development pathway for the lead program at aTyr Pharma. aTyr’s lead program, scheduled for a pre-IND meeting at the FDA in September, is a novel protein therapeutic, ATYR0030, with thrombopoietic activity that is initially being developed to treat thrombocytopenia in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
After completing a Ph. D. at Korea University and postdoctoral training at Stanford University, Dr. Park has spent 9 years in the pharmaceutical industry focused on process development for biotherapeutics, including experience with 8 proteins that have reached the clinical development stage. According to Alain Vasserot, Ph. D., Executive Director of Preclinical Development at aTyr Pharma, “Dr. Park adds valuable drug development expertise to aTyr Pharma. His experience and perspective have been an essential driver in our rapid development of ATYR0030. Dr. Park’s talk at Bio Korea 2009 will give attendees a prime opportunity to gain perspective from a highly skilled practitioner in the biotherapeutic development field.”
Jeff Watkins, the CEO of aTyr Pharma adds, “Dr. Park is a vital component of our strong biologics development team, a strength that distinguishes aTyr Pharma from many other biotechnology companies. With the current emphasis on protein biologics, most pharmaceutical companies are looking to novel biotherapeutics to provide new treatments for human diseases. Scientific leaders in our sector understand the unique issues and challenges associated with process development for protein therapeutics, and we are pleased that the organizers of Bio Korea 2009 recognize the value of sharing Dr. Park’s perspectives in biotherapeutic development.”
About aTyr Pharma
aTyr Pharma, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of an entirely new class of biologics. aTyr Pharma’s discovery engine for new biotherapeutics consists of novel proteins in the family of tRNA synthetases with cell signaling activities distinct from the protein synthesis activities commonly associated with the tRNA synthetases. These resected proteins, or “resectins”, are being developed as novel therapeutics to treat hematological disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders.
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