Flush with $15 million in new venture capital funding, Serenex said last week that it plans to hire an additional 30 scientists within a year and embark on a program to automate its platform for screening purine-binding proteins for interactions with small molecule lead compounds. The company has also signed early-stage partnerships with Pharmacia and Pfizer and is in negotiations with two “recently-merged” companies, Robert Dishman, Serenex’s CEO, told ProteoMonitor.