{"id":903235,"date":"2026-09-24T03:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903235\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T03:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:02:13","slug":"a-knee-d-to-know-particle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/903235\/","title":{"rendered":"A knee-d to know | Particle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Myles Murphy<\/a> set out to become a sports physio.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of my degree, I was like, research is for losers,\u201d says Myles. \u201cThere\u2019s no way I\u2019m doing that, not a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite that sentiment, he\u2019s an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, director of a team of scientists at the Centre for Injury Prevention and Pain<\/a> and a 2026 Early Career Scientist of the Year<\/a> finalist.<\/p>\n

What changed?\u00a0<\/p>\n

After working with football and cricket teams for a few years after graduating, Myles went back to study a master\u2019s in sports physiotherapy at Curtin University. This time, research wasn\u2019t optional.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the cohort was dreading it \u2013 but I loved it,\u201d says Myles.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I would tell myself not to rule anything out. Not saying \u2018no\u2019, more saying \u2018not right now\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physio research wasn\u2019t what he had imagined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t own a lab coat \u2013 but I can bring you to my gym,\u201d says Myles.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nCaption: Myles (left) at a training session with the Perth Wildcats
Credit: Perth Wildcats<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that I always loved in my job as a physio was solving the problem, figuring out what was going on and how you would help someone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn research, it\u2019s exactly the same thing, just on a broader scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prevention is the best treatment \u2026<\/p>\n

Part of a physio\u2019s work is trying to prevent injuries in the first place.<\/p>\n

To do that, you need data about who gets hurt and how.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Myles works with sports leagues, including the Women\u2019s National Basketball League<\/a> and National Basketball League<\/a>, to crunch injury numbers across every basketball team in both leagues.<\/p>\n

Not every sport is so accommodating, Myles says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of an honour to be able to work with [the W\/NBL],\u201d says Myles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re quite unique in that they\u2019ve got a really positive culture and they\u2019re really supportive of player health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nCaption: Myles (left) works with individual athletes, sports teams and entire sporting leagues.
Credit: Perth Wildcats<\/p>\n

He\u2019s helped develop advice for athletes at every level, from national teams to young players hoping to avoid a career-ending injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re designing [the athletes\u2019] program so they get the most bang for their buck and really maximise prevention across the injury profiles that are most likely for them,\u201d says Myles.<\/p>\n

\u2026 but treatments are cool too<\/p>\n

But what happens if you do get hurt?<\/p>\n

Even if you make a seemingly perfect recovery, Myles\u2019 research shows your brain can still think you\u2019re hurt and unconsciously holds you back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Myles asked people with old knee injuries to push as hard as they could \u2013 then jolted them with an electric current to measure what their muscles could really do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap between what they think is their max versus their max when we zap them is much higher,\u201d says Myles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a fun test to deliver. Not so much to be a participant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the study suggested a possible solution as well: a hat containing an electrical brain stimulation device.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It helped \u201ctake the brakes off\u201d during rehabilitation exercises, Myles\u2019 research shows, improving outcomes after knee reconstructions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nCaption: Brain stimulation has been around for decades, but this is the first time it\u2019s been used for musculoskeletal rehab \u2013 or looked this stylish.
Credit: Murphy et al. (2024)<\/a><\/p>\n

Not no, but not now<\/p>\n

From studying entire sports leagues to making electric rehab hats, his research and work as a physiotherapist are all linked, Myles says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy research helps make me better in the clinic, and the challenges and problems I see in the clinic inform the research that I do,\u201d says Myles.<\/p>\n

His attitude towards research has changed from struggling to say yes to struggling to say no.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll start getting excited about an idea, and then I have to be like, Myles, you do not have the capacity for this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just gotten, I think, more and more addicted to research and solving problems every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Myles Murphy set out to become a sports physio. \u201cAt the end of my degree, I was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[471484,471475,471478,169428,64,63,243315,471476,471479,231188,471483,8760,471482,471490,34320,1443,43717,471488,3512,56025,14262,11784,123032,15057,471491,125820,27326,471487,471480,128,191801,471489,9932,471486,471481,190949,471485,183185,471477,69276],"class_list":["post-903235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-acl-rehabilitation","tag-athlete-health","tag-athlete-rehabilitation","tag-athlete-performance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-researchers","tag-basketball-injuries","tag-basketball-injury-prevention","tag-brain-stimulation","tag-centre-for-injury-prevention-and-pain","tag-curtin-university","tag-early-career-scientist-of-the-year","tag-electrical-brain-stimulation","tag-exercise-science","tag-health-research","tag-injury-prevention","tag-injury-surveillance","tag-knee-injury","tag-knee-reconstruction","tag-medical-research","tag-muscle-activation","tag-myles-murphy","tag-nbl","tag-neuromuscular-rehabilitation","tag-pain-research","tag-physiotherapist","tag-physiotherapy-research","tag-premiers-science-awards","tag-science","tag-sports-injuries","tag-sports-injury-prevention","tag-sports-medicine","tag-sports-physiotherapy","tag-sports-rehabilitation","tag-sports-science","tag-university-of-notre-dame-australia","tag-wa-science","tag-western-australian-scientists","tag-wnbl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}