Who hasn’t walked along a beach, been mesmerized by the vibrant “rock structures” that decorate the seafloor, and started to name them? Maybe you’ve even playfully compared their shapes to familiar objects – a brain, deer antlers – or their colors. These intriguing formations are, of course, corals! These organisms live in association with microorganisms (forming a holobiont) and are extremely important for the maintenance and health of the oceans. They are also responsible for providing jobs and food for thousands of people. Some corals can tolerate drastic environmental changes (e.g., pollution and warming waters). Not all corals get sick or die during stress episodes (bleaching), so this work investigates how the coral holobiont (host + zooxanthellae + microorganisms) could acclimatize and survive environmental changes. We will focus on three response fronts: i) immunological, ii) genetic, and iii) physiological. Resistant individuals will be selected, and we will breed them in the laboratory and reintroduce them to the environment to restore degraded areas. In addition, our studies will show how human activities affect the health of coral symbionts, providing data that will help inform coral conservation studies and integrate different fields of knowledge.