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Wed 22 Dec, 2010 09:17 am
Context:
"Rather than 'rounding up the usual suspects', we now have a comprehensive molecular playlist of 1000 suspects," says Professor Jeffrey L Noebels, Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. "Every seventh protein in this line-up is involved in a known clinical disorder, and over half of them are repeat offenders. Mining the postsynaptic proteome now gives researchers a strategic entry point, and the rest of us a front row seat to witness neuroscience unravel the complexity of human brain disorders."
This is a stock phrase which refers to cheap detective and crime fiction. It is based on the idea that when petty crimes are committed, the police "round up the usual suspects," which is to say, look for known petty criminals, and then question those suspects in the belief that the criminal they are looking for will be among that number.
In this case, the expression is used to indicate that there are certain proteins which are usually associated with the clinical disorders which are referred to, but that, instead of just assuming that this short list of proteins will inevitably contain the proteing causing the clinical disorder (rounding up the usual suspects), these researchers have now identified one thousand proteins, of which one out of seven of the total may be responsible for the clinical disorders. So, instead of just a small group of proteins, the researchers now have well over one hundred proteins which may be implicated--not just "the usual suspects."
@oristarA,
It's an expression made famous in 'Casablanca'.
@MonaLeeza,
Yes, sufficiently famous that a very entertaining motion picture was entitled
The Usual Suspects.
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