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

2026-05 - Congratulations to Dylan Anderson for defending his Master's thesis on lizard feeding physiology! He will be moving to University of Florida to pursue his PhD. And Congratulations to Harlow Smith, who won a series of Undergraduate research awards in his last semester, and is moving to Ohio University to begin his PHD this fall! 

2026-01 - We had a great time at SICB this year in Portland! Undergraduate students Harlow Smith, Amelia Brady, Cate Pradhan, and Helaina Callis all presented their research, as well as graduate students Thomas Stroud and Dylan Anderson, as well as lab Alum Elska Kaczmarek! 

Recent publications

2025 - 11 - Fluid flow and feeding performance in infant mammals: evaluating the impact of nipple design

• ​Here, former lab undergraduate Ani Smith (now a PhD student at Ohio University) published her senior thesis where we evaluated how the biomimetic nipple impacted the fluid dynamics of feeding in infants. 

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.