Dr. Austin is a fantastic professor, and I am so happy that I could be in her class. Homework assignments are very reasonable and if you pay attention to what is being asked, you can get the whole credit. There is a presentation involved that I liked it. Final and midterm are based on lectures and doable. In general, her classes are the best and you will learn a lot without experiencing stress. Thank you Dr. Austin for your wonderful classes; you are the best!

If you get a chance to take this class with Professor Austin, take it!

Out of all the classes I've taken at UCLA, this one was by far the most impactful. Just entering the minor, I really didn't know much about the research process. This class teaches you not only how to come up with an idea, but how to design experiments in order to test your theories. You get to deconstruct interesting papers, present a research topic you’re interested in, and write a research proposal. You use everything you learn in this class in upper division courses and the lab you end up joining. To this day, I still use all the skills I’ve learned in this class. I can’t tell you how many times my PI talked about a research method and was surprised that I already knew the technique! No other class will teach you the actual research process to this extent, so take it with the intention of learning it well. I promise it will benefit you. In other words, this is the most practical class you can take.

Professor Austin also really cares about her students. All the research she discusses and shows us is incredibly relevant to some of the most groundbreaking research today. She designed the class to have every possible thing that will be relevant to you for a future in research. On top of the stuff I talked about earlier, the presentation at the end also gets you comfortable talking about research in front of an audience which is SO important for URW and even just being in a lab. Also if you don’t understand something she will take the time to explain it to you during office hours and in class. The class is really designed for you to make the most of it. Professor Austin will also give you incredible advice about your future plans, so I highly recommend attending office hours for this class. It’s a small class so this is one of the few opportunities at UCLA to get mentorship and advice from a professor.

Definitely the best class at UCLA!!

I loved taking this class with Professor Austin! Aside from the course material, there was a presentation that we had to do over Zoom, which was a great break from the course. Dr. Austin was very approachable, and she was very knowledgeable about the course material. She was also very understanding throughout the quarter and offered to drop our lowest midterm for us. Certainly not a walk in the park, but very fair class with a lot of opportunities for extra credit. Dr. Austin clearly cares about her students. Would highly recommend anyone to take this course with her. The TAs were fantastic as well, and they explained all of the material really well.

Professor Austin is a superstar. Most of this class is about showing up and understanding lectures, and for sure understanding discussion. I had Evgeniy for a TA and he was incredible, very clear and each discussion he fully explained through each figure of the paper. You have to ask questions in discussion to really get a good understanding. Tina Austin's lectures are good, she uses her slides and verbal explanations a lot. Austin loves feedback forms, and this is the attendance every class and discussion. For my quarter, half of the classes were online. Attendance is important. Participation is important, she asks a lot of questions during lecture and she appreciates you answering even if your wrong. The homeworks are based around discussion and lecture, so take good notes. The midterms were challenging, I got an A on the first one and didn't get a grade back on the second one (TA strike) but it was bad. I studied around two days before each midterm. The final was multiple choice because of the strike too, but Austin was super gentle with how in depth the cumulative questions are. Overall a great, enthralling, and very informational class. Don't miss out on taking Tina Austin if you can help it, she's the greatest.

This course was informative, organized, engaging, and interesting! I love that Professor Austin updates her slides to current research and any new findings. Also, participation is very important for this course. I highly HIGHLY recommend going to office hours if you can. Professor Austin is very open to meeting new students and is helpful with any questions you might have. Another tip for exams is to go over the slides. There are things that are emphasized in lecture that you will want to take note of, as they will probably be on the exam. Make sure to allot a proper amount of time for studying by looking through the slides, discussion recordings, and info that was gone over during office hours.
Overall, I learned so much more about stem cells, and participating in class only helped me learn more. Professor Austin truly cares about student learning, so be vocal in class (when appropriate) for answering questions or taking part in discussions.
Another note: this class requires a short individual presentation via zoom. Be creative and add some personal elements to yours! These presentations, while they may seem a little intimidating, become a great way to get to know your peers and relevant topics more.
Definitely a course that I think everyone should take if they get the chance!

Dr. Austin is an engaging lecturer who really demonstrates a deeply rooted passion for teaching biomedical research. I personally had little to no prior research experience before taking this class and, after learning various concepts through her lectures, I felt a lot more prepared to pursue long-term research in a wet lab for my Minor. The class has quizzes, but they are fairly straightforward so long as you paid attention in class. You also learn to write proposals and give a presentation on a topic of interest that expands on concepts discussed in class, which were all great learning experiences. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this class with Dr. Austin if you plan to pursue the Biomedical Research Minor.

Professor Austin was the best professor I have had at UCLA so far. She is extremely approachable and structures the class in an engaging manner that helps dumb down the complex material. Definitely would recommend this class with Professor Austin if you're MCDB or MIMG and need to take 165A for a core class.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class especially because I learned a lot about the material and because I appreciated Professor Austin and all her generous help. This class provided a great environment to learn and discuss research. With COVID, the lab classes where you learn a lot of basic lab techniques were online so when it came to laboratory techniques and research, I still found everything very new. This class taught me a lot about various lab techniques and made me grow more comfortable in my own understanding so that I could apply my learning to my own research lab and projects.

The class is formatted where we had presentations given by UCLA faculty who would present one of their own research projects and then for the next few weeks, we would spend our time reading and dissecting their work. A few weeks later, the researcher would return to our class and answer our questions. It was satisfying to engage in discussion and see how much we have learned over the last few weeks. Throughout the quarter, there were also a variety of assignments, including a proposal and a final presentation. I enjoyed having the opportunity to design my proposal and give a research presentation. I further enjoyed having the opportunity to listen to my peers and listen to their creative ideas and perspectives when it came to research.

This class made me feel more confident in my abilities to present and discuss research. The set up of the class is focused on participation and allowed for everyone to actively contribute their thoughts or ask insightful questions. As such, it created a great environment to discuss research and learn from Professor Austin, other UCLA faculty, and my peers and hear their unique perspective on subjects.

Through projects in this class, such as the proposal and final presentation, I was able to grow in my abilities to present research. I especially learned a lot because of the valuable feedback from Professor Austin. She would have us submit our presentations prior to our presentation date to provide us feedback and ensure we felt prepared. She worked with me countless times, even taking the time to meet with me outside of office hours or class. In office hour, it was incredibly helpful to meet with her and ask further questions about the class material or assignments. I also found it enjoyable to attend office hours to chat about her research experiences as well or other research in the field. Professor Austin truly cares from her students and will invest her time in them in order to help them grow as students. I truly believe this class has taught me so much and helped me grow as researcher, especially because of Professor Austin.

Overall, I loved this class because I felt like I was able to demonstrate tangible progress I made through class discussions or presentations. or even being able to directly apply the class material to my own research. I especially appreciate all the time Professor Austin took to meet with me and provide me with her feedback to help me grow. I highly recommend this class to any student interested in pursuing research or just learning about the research field. I also would highly recommend taking this class with Professor Austin given her dedication to her students.

Dr. Austin's class was great! Her passion for the subject is evident, and it significantly increased my interest in the field. What stood out the most was her unwavering support for her students. Dr. Austin genuinely cares about our success and understanding, lectures have interactive polls or supportive videos to help us understand the topic. The lectures were filled with relevant and fascinating information about current stem cell knowledge and events, making the complex topic of stem cells more approachable and interesting. She presents the information in a way that is easy to understand, and she's always willing to clarify any doubts.

Dr. Austin's helpfulness extends beyond the classroom as she offers extra credit opportunities that reinforce our learning and give us a deeper understanding of the material. This approach not only helps students who are struggling but also enriches those who are already doing well. The course workload is reasonable with a lot of the work being extra credit and nothing feeling like "busy work."

Lastly, Dr. Austin enriches the class by bringing in fantastic guest speakers who are leaders in their field and have very informative and engaging talks. I highly recommend her class to anyone interested in this cutting-edge area of science.

I personally really enjoyed Dr. Austin's class this quarter and felt that she was a great and understanding professor. The class centered around a central theme of research which for our quarter was aging. We began by watching a seminar by another UCLA professor about his recent work which I found very interesting and spent the next few weeks deconstructing his findings and experimental techniques. Along the way we completed group worksheets which I felt were fairly graded and eventually finished with an online quiz. Dr. Austin offers a ton of opportunities for extra credit usually in the form of additional worksheets as well as an extra credit quiz whose points would be added to the first pretty much guaranteeing you got over 100% on it. At the end of the quarter the professor returned for a question and answer seminar which was really cool as he was very passionate about his research and excited to answer questions. Dr. Austin also gave us extra credit if we asked a question.
Additionally, the class focuses a lot on teaching you how to give presentations which I felt was very unique and extremely helpful for future classes here at UCLA and outside of school. Going into this class I was a very nervous public speaker and this class did a great job in helping me feel more comfortable giving presentations. For our first presentation we had to give a "TED Talk" about a research topic of our choice relating to the central theme of aging. Dr. Austin provided us with a ton of sample presentations from students in the past which was extremely helpful and gave us the option to record the presentation in zoom if we didn't feel comfortable presenting in front of class. We also gave a "Chalk Talk" with a partner to an imaginary 9th grade audience which I actually had a lot of fun with. Dr. Austin allowed us to be creative and gave us a lot of leeway in how we structured our presentation. We were able to use props or give out prizes for audience interaction which made watching other group's presentations a lot more entertaining.
Dr. Austin was very good about being clear with deadlines, as everything was posted in the syllabus at the start of class and we were able to choose the dates we wanted to present well in advance. The class pretty much finishes in week 9 when you give your presentation which was really nice as I had time to study for my finals for other classes. I would definitely recommend taking this class with Dr. Austin as all the extra credit she gives makes it a great opportunity to learn how to give effective presentations in a low stress environment where getting an A is very doable.