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 2024 - Professor Rigueur is one of the worst professors I have ever taken a class with. The content of the class itself was interesting, but Rigueur ruined the course for me. First of all, our first midterm was a ridiculous length for being handwritten in-person, and almost every student I talked to had trouble finishing the entire exam. Rigueur released the grades for this exam one of two ways: 1. you had to go to her office hours and stand there while she graded it (while other students were present in the room) or 2. wait until the day before the second midterm for the grades to be posted on Canvas. The grades for our second quiz, which was taken in the middle of the quarter, and several of our weekly assignments were posted during winter break, showing her complete lack of timeliness when it came to grading. She did not let the TAs assist her in grading exams, causing them to be in the dark for almost every question students had about logistics for this class. Rigueur's know-it-all personality and holier-than-thou attitude (she made it clear on the first day that she was apparently titled "Distinguished" Professor Rigueur) made me feel so unwelcome to seek her help, and I cannot see myself wanting to take a class with her ever again unless forced against my will.
Fall 2024 - Professor Rigueur is one of the worst professors I have ever taken a class with. The content of the class itself was interesting, but Rigueur ruined the course for me. First of all, our first midterm was a ridiculous length for being handwritten in-person, and almost every student I talked to had trouble finishing the entire exam. Rigueur released the grades for this exam one of two ways: 1. you had to go to her office hours and stand there while she graded it (while other students were present in the room) or 2. wait until the day before the second midterm for the grades to be posted on Canvas. The grades for our second quiz, which was taken in the middle of the quarter, and several of our weekly assignments were posted during winter break, showing her complete lack of timeliness when it came to grading. She did not let the TAs assist her in grading exams, causing them to be in the dark for almost every question students had about logistics for this class. Rigueur's know-it-all personality and holier-than-thou attitude (she made it clear on the first day that she was apparently titled "Distinguished" Professor Rigueur) made me feel so unwelcome to seek her help, and I cannot see myself wanting to take a class with her ever again unless forced against my will.
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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