 SAN DIEGO, April 21, 2020 GLOBE NEWSWIRE -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. LIFE, a biotherapeutics company engaged in the discovery and development of innovative medicines based on novel immunological pathways, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA has accepted its Investigational New Drug IND application to evaluate its lead therapeutic candidate, ATYR1923, in a Phase 2 study in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory complications. Many COVID-19 patients with severe disease experience serious, sometimes fatal, respiratory complications caused by an excessive inflammatory response in the lung, primarily driven by T-cells, said Dr. Sanjay Shukla, M.D., M.S., President and Chief Executive Officer of aTyr. The inflammatory lung injury related to COVID-19 may be similar to that of interstitial lung diseases, or ILDs, for which ATYR1923 is currently being investigated. 