Welcome to the Mayerl lab! 

We are interested in exploring how interactions between an organism's anatomy and physiology generate performance across ontogenetic and comparative perspectives. Our research integrates measures of physiology, physics, and engineering principles to provide mechanistic insight into sensorimotor integration across vertebrates. 

Lab news

2025-07 - Amelia Brady joined the lab this summer, and successfully presented a poster this summer at a local conference!

2025-05 - Ani Smith, Hannah Shideler, and Maressa Kennedy are all graduated! Ani and Maressa are moving on to PhD's, and Hannah is in the process of applying to Medical schools. 

2025 - 01 - We had a great time at SICB in Atlanta, GA, with seven presentations at the conference,

Recent publications

2025 - 09 - Infant pigs demonstrate motor adaptation across multiple physiologic functions during feeding in response to dynamic changes in milk flow rate

• In this work, former lab undergraduate Maressa Kennedy (now a PhD student at UA) published her senior thesis looking at motor adaptation during feeding in infant pigs.

2025 - 08 - A ducted, biomimetic nipple replicates breastfeeding mechanics through ontogeny in an infant animal model

• This work, lead by Dr. Elska Kaczmarek, demonstrates that a ducted nipple can result in feeding mechanics that replicate breastfeeding compared to bottle feeding. 

2025 - 05 - Evaluating the Impact of Nipple Design on Tongue Function in Infant Feeding Using a Dynamic Endocast

• Here, Dr. Elska Kaczmarek and Hannah Shideler evaluated 3-D tongue function when suckling using a novel methodology.