Epithelia, polarized layers of adherent cells, comprise the fundamental building blocks of animal body plans. The overarching objective of my lab is to understand the genetic programs that direct the growth of epithelial tissues, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms that coordinate epithelial cell mitosis with the maintenance of polarized tissue architecture in vivo. In this talk I will highlight two very different areas of recent progress in the lab: 1) Interrogating the role of the DPP/BMP morphogen gradient during growth of Drosophila imaginal discs; and 2) Investigating primary epithelium formation in early embryos of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensisother systems. We have also expanded the SGA platform to i