MCD BIO 165A
Biology of Cells
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: Chemistry 14D or 30B, Life Sciences 3, or 7A, 7B, and 7C. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 100. Molecular basis of cellular structure and function, with focus on each individual cellular organelle, as well as interaction of cells with extracellular environment and with other cells. Material presented in context of experimental questions and answers to incorporate concept of scientific method and recent advances in cell biology research. Exposure in discussions to recent scientific articles that directly relate to information examined in lectures. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - This is my favorite class I've ever taken at UCLA, and Rigueur has been my favorite professor (I have have taken MCDB 165a, 144, 138, 180a, and 180b all with her). I have taken every class possible with her for a reason! I think I learned more in this class than any class I've ever taken. It's the first time I actually felt like I was getting an education while in college. I felt like I walked away with my arms around the fundamentals of Cell Bio and also the basic science techniques that have taught us what we know. I credit this to Dr. Rigueur's teaching - it is so clear that her priority is that you learn the material. Now, learning all that is taught in the class is not "easy," per se, and there's not really any way for it to be. If you are not ready to study and work hard, it may be wise to reconsider why you're taking this class/major in the first place. There's a lot to learn and that just takes time and effort. However, I am so glad I took Dr. Rigueur for this class. It was such a great experience that I went on to take the rest of the MCDB core classes all with her. I couldn't recommend her as a professor more!
Fall 2025 - This is my favorite class I've ever taken at UCLA, and Rigueur has been my favorite professor (I have have taken MCDB 165a, 144, 138, 180a, and 180b all with her). I have taken every class possible with her for a reason! I think I learned more in this class than any class I've ever taken. It's the first time I actually felt like I was getting an education while in college. I felt like I walked away with my arms around the fundamentals of Cell Bio and also the basic science techniques that have taught us what we know. I credit this to Dr. Rigueur's teaching - it is so clear that her priority is that you learn the material. Now, learning all that is taught in the class is not "easy," per se, and there's not really any way for it to be. If you are not ready to study and work hard, it may be wise to reconsider why you're taking this class/major in the first place. There's a lot to learn and that just takes time and effort. However, I am so glad I took Dr. Rigueur for this class. It was such a great experience that I went on to take the rest of the MCDB core classes all with her. I couldn't recommend her as a professor more!
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Tbh this class wasn't at all what I expected based on the course description on MyUCLA. Instead of focusing on cell bio concepts in detail, we had weekly background videos that went over the general concepts of a specific thing (e.g. cytoskeleton, vesicles, etc) and in class we had methods lectures that went over different experimental techniques/methods, and paper lectures where we discussed the 6 papers throughout the quarter. While I didn't learn as much of the cell bio concepts as I was expecting/hoping, I am definitely grateful for the methods lectures because it helped me understand the papers/experiments for this class and other classes. Tests and quizzes could be a bit tricky, especially the first midterm (which has more "design an experiment" questions on it than the other exams; they would grade looking for one specific answer, even though that type of question is very open-ended and in my view could have multiple options that work), and in grading they look for veryyy specific things that could get a bit annoying (like on the final, I lost half a point for saying we should use a mutated gene instead of specifying I meant a loss-of-function mutation even though my answer definitely indicated I meant that and it wasn't the focus of the question but whatevssss). Losing just a few points on quizzes/tests meant a lot because they're not out of a lot to begin with, which sucked and made me very scared about my overall grade in the class. Dr Sagasti himself was a good lecturer and pretty clear and organized with them. Grading: Five quizzes - 25% total (lowest score dropped) Midterm 1 - 20% Midterm 2 - 25% Final exam - 30%
Spring 2025 - Tbh this class wasn't at all what I expected based on the course description on MyUCLA. Instead of focusing on cell bio concepts in detail, we had weekly background videos that went over the general concepts of a specific thing (e.g. cytoskeleton, vesicles, etc) and in class we had methods lectures that went over different experimental techniques/methods, and paper lectures where we discussed the 6 papers throughout the quarter. While I didn't learn as much of the cell bio concepts as I was expecting/hoping, I am definitely grateful for the methods lectures because it helped me understand the papers/experiments for this class and other classes. Tests and quizzes could be a bit tricky, especially the first midterm (which has more "design an experiment" questions on it than the other exams; they would grade looking for one specific answer, even though that type of question is very open-ended and in my view could have multiple options that work), and in grading they look for veryyy specific things that could get a bit annoying (like on the final, I lost half a point for saying we should use a mutated gene instead of specifying I meant a loss-of-function mutation even though my answer definitely indicated I meant that and it wasn't the focus of the question but whatevssss). Losing just a few points on quizzes/tests meant a lot because they're not out of a lot to begin with, which sucked and made me very scared about my overall grade in the class. Dr Sagasti himself was a good lecturer and pretty clear and organized with them. Grading: Five quizzes - 25% total (lowest score dropped) Midterm 1 - 20% Midterm 2 - 25% Final exam - 30%
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