Harvard Medical School Mar 25 2025 After every meal, the intestines perform an action called peristalsis - moving food through their hollow interiors with coordinated contractions and relaxations of the smooth muscle. For more than a century, scientists have known that nerve cells in the gut propel the colon to move, allowing the organ to perform its life-sustaining function. But exactly how these intestinal nerve cells do their job has remained elusive. Now a new NIH-funded study led by