Elizabeth Bye (BAppSc PT, PhD) trained as a physiotherapist at the University of Sydney and worked as a clinician for almost 10 years at Prince of Wales Hospital where she specialised in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. She obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2020 completing her research at NeuRA and the Kolling Institute. The focus of her thesis was on strengthening of partially paralysed muscles following a spinal cord injury. This involved a multi-centred international randomised controlled trial across Australia and India, investigating the efficacy of a strengthening intervention. Further, she studied the mechanisms at play responsible for strength gains in neurologically weak muscles using an MRI technique, diffusor tensor imaging (DTI), and assessed the reliability of a commonly used strength measurement tool.

Elizabeth has also been involved in trials assessing abdominal electrical stimulation to assist with ventilator weaning in critical illness. She now works as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre at NeuRA. Elizabeth’s current projects investigate the effect of transcutaneous spinal stimulation (TSS) combined with locomotor training on walking ability as well as exploring some of the methodological aspects of TSS and the corresponding response of lower limb reflexes.