The “log” in the title refers to “log phase.” Our use of this term in a strictly mathematical sense to describe the exponential rate of replication of intracellular AdAPT-001 (or log phase of growth) has engendered some confusion. That’s because in common parlance, “exponential” is synonymous with “dramatic” or “very rapid” as indicated by the phrases “exponentially more dangerous,” “exponentially more difficult,” “exponential growth” and “prices have increased at an exponential rate.”
Not to be pedantic, but mathematically speaking, exponential growth refers to a quantity that increases by a constant percent. This is different than linear growth where the original quantity increases by a constant amount, as shown in the table below.
The reason why exponential growth and rapid growth are not synonymous is that the former is deceptively slow at first, then sudden, resulting in a J-shaped curve, as shown at the top of this post.
So, when we say that AdAPT-001 has entered a log phase we refer to a period of exponential replication where the number of viral particles increases by a constant percent until a peak titer or concentration is reached.
Hopefully, thanks to this explanation, the meaning of the word is now exponentially clearer, in a non-mathematical sense.