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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Basics of Extracellular Vesicles by University of California, Irvine

4.7
stars
338 ratings

About the Course

This course aims to provide the basic knowledge about extracellular vesicles (EV) a generic term including exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, prostasomes, and many others. It covers areas such as EV history, nomenclature, biogenesis, EV cargo as well as the release and uptake mechanisms, collection and processing prior to isolation, different isolation methods, characterization and quantification techniques. This course is divided into five modules. Module 1 is an introduction to the field and will cover the nomenclature and the history of EVs. Module 2 will focus on the biogenesis, release and uptake mechanisms of EVs as well as the different EV cargos (RNA, protein, lipids). In Module 3, we will focus on the collection and processing of cell culture media and body fluids such as blood, breast milk, cerebrospinal fluid and urine prior to isolation of EVs. Module 4 and 5 will present different isolation methods and characterization/quantification techniques, respectively. Here differential ultracentrifugation, size exclusion chromatography, density gradient, kit based precipitation, electron microscopy (EM), cryo-TEM, flow cytometry, atomic-force microscopy and nanoparticle tracking analysis will be presented. The recommended prerequisites are college-freshman-level biology and biochemistry. After a completed course you should be able to: + Discuss the nomenclature and subgroups of extracellular vesicles. + Describe the RNA, protein and lipid content of extracellular vesicles. + Describe the basic concepts about the most common isolation and characterization techniques and how these techniques are used in the EV field. + State the benefits and limitations of the most common isolation and characterization techniques for extracellular vesicles. + Explain the considerations that are important during the collection and isolation of EVs from different body fluid. + Describe the release and uptake mechanisms of extracellular vesicles All lectures are given in English. Each of the five modules will be followed by an exam. All exams will be in the format of multiple choice questions. The course is organized in collaboration between the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), University of California Irvine (USA), University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (South Korea)....

Top reviews

MR

Jan 10, 2019

Awosome course. Lot of information given with paper based data and suggestion. I really love it. I am also working with Exosome. I use cell culture media from PC12 and fibroblast cell line.

DD

May 16, 2020

I found Ia very professional way to introduce everyone to the amazing world of EV. Professor show elegantly their knowledge. The course fulfils my expectations. Congratulations! Nice works

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1 - 25 of 95 Reviews for Basics of Extracellular Vesicles

By Madhura K

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Aug 5, 2020

Awesome and unique course. Cleared my basics and introduced me to many new things. I especially loved knowing the different techniques used for EV research.

By Minos V

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Jan 31, 2018

The only problem I faced, has to do with the subtitles. They have lots of mismatches and mistakes. Nevertheless, the MOOC is undoubtedly great and pretty educational.

By Shukhman B

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Nov 12, 2016

The most important benefit of this course is the fact that it exists. At present the course is mediocre to bad: its educational value is low: transcripts are disgusting, they are not proofread, omitted pats of sentences, inconsistent English, they almost completely obscure, disrupt the sense of the presentation. The course offers no slides. I see obvious negligence in preparation of many lectures (especially bad week three).

The target audience for the course is professional biologist that are comparable with arithmetic and elementary algebra and can easily use an internet browser.

The course contains numerous mistakes: in particular, the elementary formula Dr. Cecilia Lasser presented in her week 4 lecture on Differential Ultracentrifugation contains an error.

The lectures presented by non-native English speakers are very difficult to understand because of poor & inconsistent English.

Please, make the lecture slide available for your students.

Please, arrange a forum giving a possibility to ask a questions and get understanding of the material that remains unclear.

The lectures on electron microscopy were very good, - thank you, Johanna!

The lectures on AFM was the only one that was just excellent, - Thank you, Dr. Shivani Sharma.

Please, review the sequence of lectures: I think the week 5 material may be moved to week 3.

By Aedrian A

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Jan 22, 2021

This technical course provides a comprehensive overview of the history in the understanding of, underlying introductory concepts of, and experimental techniques used in the study of extracellular vesicles. Quite challenging and perhaps not really for the casual learner, this course will be best appreciated by those with at least college-level grasp of (cell and molecular) biology, (bio)chemistry and/or physics. Those with exposure to the aforementioned fields may find this course useful in getting to know a highly-interesting emerging field or in considering a young research area (with an apparently energetic organized scientific community) to embark on. I am looking forward to take the second course in the series (Extracellular Vesicles in Health and Disease) which will deal with the biological context in which these entities work on.

By Margo M

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Jun 29, 2021

I think the information was very well presented and delivered. Coming from a research student who did not have a large background in EV research prior to this course, this introduction was able to broaden my basic understanding on what extracellular vesicles are and then provided me with many ways to research them using the current research data. I also loved that this course was taught by scientists all around the world working in collaboration.

By Denise S

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Mar 16, 2017

It's a great course, learnt a lot. It would have been great if the slides were provided too and addition of discussion forums would also help to cultivate what we have learnt better by exchanging views with fellow classmates. Thanks very much for providing the course.

By Florencia I

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Jun 30, 2019

I loved this course! Very complete, well balanced and dynamic lectures. I learned a lot about EVs and can't wait to start working with them!

By Sandra M D A

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Mar 8, 2019

Me ha gustado mucho este curso, ya que he aprendido muchos conocimientos sobre las vesículas extracelulares.

By Morgane G

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Aug 16, 2020

Some of the lecturers in this course were really fantastic! I also appreciate the format and structure, as well as the depth of topics covered, it made a lot of sense and was easy to follow. I learned a lot and got some great reference notes for my own research. A suggestion I have to improve the learning experience would be to make the slides accessible for download, so that students can take their notes directly onto slides and keep up better, rather than having to pause and rewind every few minutes.

By Cahyani G A

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Jun 5, 2022

The course I just completed is about Basics of Extracellular Vesicles, packed as a five-week program. To me personally, who has never read about EVs before, the course is helpful. It consists of short videos (10–30 minutes each) to explain many aspects of EVs, which are easy to follow. They use quizzes per week with a minimum score to achieve, encouraging us to read the material carefully.  The course material is updated. The speakers mention new findings and recommendations about how to perform EV research with the most current acceptable standard, which majority are similar to the articles I have read for the summary table.

By Manasa V

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Jun 29, 2021

It was a great experience to learn from the top researchers from the field of Extracellular Vesicles. Hope this will greatly help in my research work and looking forward for kind cooperation from the course teachers if any hurdles in my research work. Thanks to the Course Coordinator, Cecilia Lasser and all the course teachers for the wonderful dissemination of the knowledge, competencies and skills.

By Judith D M

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Jan 1, 2018

I loved this course! I currently work in the liposome field and I was curious about learning EVs especially because its a young and growing field where they will be a lot of things to study. I liked the combination of scientists who got on board to share their knowledge in the field and I will definitely think of studying EVs in the future.

By Sai D K

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Apr 15, 2022

It's a good course to learn more about Extracellular vesicles. What I liked is that a lot of information was actually summarized and taught in a neat, uncomplicated manner. The resources provided were also quite helpful. All in all, it's a good course for those who are interested in this field. I definitely learnt a lot.

By Rosario S R A B

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Dec 1, 2023

Enjoyed learning! Would like another to include updates on on exosomes that originate from adipose, Wharton's jelly, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord blood, hybrid bone marrow + Wharton's jelly, plants ... and if stem cell conditioned media do contain intact exosomes months (or years) after production. Thank you!

By Priyanka B

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Apr 10, 2020

I loved the way the professors explained every concept and the presentations had all the important points to be noted. Images were used effectively and the transcripts were also useful. Quiz had all tricky questions and it was a good experience in finding out all the answers from the videos. Thank you

By Samantha S

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Aug 29, 2016

This course was really well organized and paced but packed full of a lot of really good information from great sources and leaders in the field. I really didn't know anything about exosomes before I started this course and now I feel like I can even teach the people in my own lab a few tricks.

By Momchil N

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Mar 28, 2020

Very good and well organized lecture slides! The organizers invested obviously a lot of effort and time in the preparation of the course. For people with advanced knowledge in cell biology, it might appear a bit easy at the beginning, but a lot to learn on the side of the techniques!

By Santharam K S

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Jun 9, 2020

It is an excellent course in terms of content and the speakers. I wish you had a demo of experiments on a couple of topics. I gained immense knowledge on extracellular vesicles after attending this course. Thank you very much to all the speakers for sharing their valuable knowledge.

By Hasanul B

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Oct 14, 2016

This is one of the best course I ever completed successfully. The course instructor's describe all the critical problems arise during the lab work. I believe by following this course one may get inspiration to start work in the field of Extracellular Vesicles.

By ZAHRAA T M A K

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Nov 8, 2021

it was an amazing course, i learned many basic information plus many information to choose proper methods for my research, the most amazing this was that each lecturer was so efficient in his teaching topic making the topic updated and accurate.

By Esteban J O H

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May 15, 2019

Very complete introduction to the field of exosomes with relevant bibliography and relevant papers to move deep into this amiazing and exciting field. Thanks for all the person who made this possible and hope to see you on the next ISEV2020.

By Azalea K

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Jul 27, 2018

Very good and informative course. I learnt a lot about EVs and exosomes, which are usually not found in published articles or books. I wish somebody had recommended this course before I started my PhD, would have saved me a lot of time!!

By Nima K T

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Feb 20, 2021

Hi , I am a veterinary student fascinated by extracellular vesicles , and with the help of this course I could learn the basic of this vast field , and I promise to continue on this path that one day I will share my works with coursera.

By Jai M

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Jan 2, 2017

I am a masters student doing an EV related lab project, this course has provided great insight into EV research from leaders in the field. Importantly, this has made me aware of what to look out for in the literature.

Many Thanks!

By Ashley R

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Jun 30, 2017

I learned SO much from this course. I'm so glad I took it! Although I did the free (audit) version, I do wish that I could have taken all of the quizzes for each week to ensure I fully internalized and understood the information.