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

2025-05 - 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,

2024 - 11 - We had four people present their research at the Southwest Regional SICB meeting, which was a lot of fun!

2024 - 05 - We've had a lot of lab turnover lately! Congratulations Skyler Wallace and Alex-Ann Velasco for graduating, and welcome to  two new undergraduate students Holly Sabato and Harlow Smith, as well as two incoming graduate students, Dylan Anderson and Emily Volpe!

Recent publications

A Machine Learning Pipeline for Automated Bolus Segmentation and Area Measurement in Swallowing Videofluoroscopy Images of an Infant Pig Model

• This paper, led by Dr. Max Sarmet, developed a new Machine learning method for segmenting boluses to assess swallow volume. 

A Ducted, Biomimetic Nipple Improves Aspects of Infant Feeding Physiology and Performance in an Animal Model

• In this paper we demonstrate that a biomimetic nipple can improve feeding performance in infants.

Evolution, diversification and function of the maternal–infant dyad in mammalian feeding

• Here we review the mother-infant dyad in mammals, and argue that we need to explore the infant side of this dyad in more detail in order to understand how nursing (and suckling) has evolved and diversified.