CIVA Receives Commercialization Grant from Los Alamos Operator for EpiCast - the Revolutionary H5N1 Avian Flu Simulation and Modeling Tool.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- The State of Iowa will be the first corporate or governmental entity outside a very focused group of federal government departments to benefit from having its Avian Flu (H5N1) and general pandemic emergency preparedness plan evaluated by EpiCast. The most advanced and detailed pandemic and seasonal flu computer modeling tool available, EpiCast is offered by CIVA (the Company for Information Visualization and Analysis, http://www.civaglobal.com). The company received a $100,000 grant from the Los Alamos National Security, LLC's Venture Acceleration Fund that will pay for approximately one-third of the cost of implementing the program for Iowa. The rest of the cost will be borne by CIVA.

The EpiCast epidemiological modeling and simulation system is the basis for emergency response and mitigation plans for the Department of Homeland Security and the White House. Dr. Tim Germann, invented EpiCast at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to specifically model the spread of Type A H5N1. EpiCast can also be utilized to predict the course of other Avian Flu strains, including H7 and H9, common "seasonal flu" and natural manmade (terrorist) pathogens. The exclusive benefit EpiCast offers over other influenza modeling programs is its ability to integrate client-specific data to suggest custom mitigation strategies to offset the pathogen's predicted impact. These mitigation suggestions can be accompanied by analytical reports of costs, and organization-specific liabilities and impacts. Key also for emergency preparedness planners is EpiCast's ability to model at a unique level of detail the community-level transmission of disease between people and their various contact groups - work, school, social, even household. However, EpiCast's most important unique feature is the ability to model the critical early stages of an epidemic outbreak when medical and social interventions can avert a public health emergency.

Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, CIVA is the exclusive or "master" commercial licensee of EpiCast. Backed with private equity and led by Dr. L. Robert (Bob) Libutti, CIVA was founded to commercialize the great wealth of information and data mining technologies developed at U.S. national laboratories including, but not limited to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. More information at: www.civaglobal.com.