Earth has lost 50% of the world’s coral reefs in the past century, making these animals and the associated biodiversity the most threatened ecosystem in the ocean. Widespread coral death and disruption of their breeding synchrony account for massive reductions in larval production which together can lead to complete population breakdown for some species. With limited larval rescue from nearby healthy coral populations, local recovery increasingly depends on the survival, growth, and regrowth of small coral patches that persist after disturbances. Therefore, it is critically important to understand the capacity for severely damaged corals to regenerate following partial mortality. Remarkably, the regenerative biology of stony corals remains understudied, particularly in the context of climate change. This problem is unique because no one has thus far been able to decipher the complex signaling responsible for healing colonial organisms and signaling network that likely interacts with the molecular response of corals to temperature stress. Thus, the goal of our project is to reveal how stony corals detect and respond to tissue damage, decipher mechanisms governing successful regeneration, and pursue preliminary evidence that there is a shared molecular program that underlies a coral’s response to thermal stress and wound healing; a phenomenon which may facilitate identifying corals that are simultaneously tolerant to both warming oceans and colony damage.