Exclusive A question mark is hanging over the future of EpiFlu, an international database created to help monitor the spread and evolution of influenza viruses. The database openly shares genetic, epidemiological and clinical data that previously had often been hoarded by countries and scientists, and is contributing to the rapid analysis of viral gene sequences from the current H1N1 pandemic.EpiFlu has become mired in a legal dispute between the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID), an international group created by leading flu researchers in August 2006 to promote data sharing (see Nature 442, 981; 2006), and the Swiss...