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livSo I'm reading a review about c-Myc and the genes it
activates, and I come across the phrase
So does anyone have a clue why a relatively weak gene response might be described as Laodicean? Other than that the author got over-excited about looking for synonyms for weak in his thesaurus! In some ways it's kind of cute, I must admit, but it's annoying me that I don't recognize the reference.
This Laodicean response does not reflect some intrinsic property of the ODC gene. This piqued my curiosity; ok, the review writer is blatantly showing off here, but I consider myself to be as classically knowledgeable as the next biochemist, and I have no idea what he is referring to. I tried Wikipedia, and it tells me that Laodices is an alternate name for Elektra, or any of several minor queens, and that there are several places called Laodicea named after said queens.
So does anyone have a clue why a relatively weak gene response might be described as Laodicean? Other than that the author got over-excited about looking for synonyms for weak in his thesaurus! In some ways it's kind of cute, I must admit, but it's annoying me that I don't recognize the reference.
