Massey Documents by Type

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'I don't consider cancer when I'm grabbing the beer': Discursive strategies used by midlife New Zealanders to undermine alcohol-cancer risks
(Oxford University Press, 2025-12) Lyons AC; Kersey K; Young J; Stephens C; Blake D; Anderson R
Compared with other age groups, adults at midlife consume alcohol at relatively high levels. Alcohol has been linked to a number of long-term health risks, including cancer, although awareness of cancer risk is low. The current study aimed to examine how adults at midlife talk about, understand and consider alcohol-related cancer risks within their life contexts. Individual interviews were undertaken with 37 adults (41-64 years; 28 female, 9 male) about their alcohol consumption, views on the health risks of drinking, and understandings of the alcohol-cancer association. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded and subjected to a discursive analysis. Participants constructed their drinking as low-risk because it was controlled, responsible, and moderate. They used discursive strategies to undermine the evidence on the cancer risks of alcohol by contrasting it with (stronger) evidence for tobacco risk, drawing on personal accounts of exceptional cases, and displaying 'risk fatigue' because alcohol was just one of many carcinogens they navigate in daily life. The pleasure they derived from alcohol outweighed cancer risks. Cancer risk evidence was itself constructed as risky because people with cancer could be blamed for their disease. These findings show that public health messages about alcohol and cancer risk need to incorporate people's own sense-making about alcohol and risk within their lives, including notions of pleasure. Unintended consequences of current messaging include short-term risks (to health and wellbeing) and moral risks (potential for people to be blamed for cancer) and therefore may be ignored or resisted by target populations.
Evidence that Xrn1 is in complex with Gcn1, and is required for full levels of eIF2α phosphorylation
(Portland Press on behalf of the Biochemical Society, 2024-03-05) Shanmugam R; Anderson R; Schiemann AH; Sattlegger E
The protein kinase Gcn2 and its effector protein Gcn1 are part of the General Amino Acid Control signalling (GAAC) pathway best known in yeast for its function in maintaining amino acid homeostasis. Under amino acid limitation, Gcn2 becomes activated, subsequently increasing the levels of phosphorylated eIF2α (eIF2α-P). This leads to the increased translation of transcriptional regulators, such as Gcn4 in yeast and ATF4 in mammals, and subsequent re-programming of the cell's gene transcription profile, thereby allowing cells to cope with starvation. Xrn1 is involved in RNA decay, quality control and processing. We found that Xrn1 co-precipitates Gcn1 and Gcn2, suggesting that these three proteins are in the same complex. Growth under starvation conditions was dependent on Xrn1 but not on Xrn1-ribosome association, and this correlated with reduced eIF2α-P levels. Constitutively active Gcn2 leads to a growth defect due to eIF2α-hyperphosphorylation, and we found that this phenotype was independent of Xrn1, suggesting that xrn1 deletion doesn't enhance eIF2α de-phosphorylation. Our study provides evidence that Xrn1 is required for efficient Gcn2 activation, directly or indirectly. Thus, we have uncovered a potential new link between RNA metabolism and the GAAC.
Re-using Criterion plastic precast gel cassettes for SDS-polyacrylamide electrophoresis.
(2021-03-16) Sattlegger E; Anderson R
Precast gels are made with plastic cassettes which usually are discarded after use. Here we describe how Criterion plastic gel cassettes can be re-used for making SDS-PAGE gels in-house.

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