For over 30 years I have had an active interest in intestinal motility. Most recently this has moved towards an investigation of how this activity is coordinated with mucosal function (absorption and secretion) in health and disease. I have been involved in two major projects involving the role of the muscularis mucosae in gastrointestinal function over the last 20 years. In the first, the pharmacological properties of this muscle are being investigated in an attempt to assess its functional relationship to the mucosal epithelium. In the second, events leading to altered muscularis mucosae and epithelial function in intestinal inflammation are studied.