Arwen graduated in 2013 from Utrecht University, the Netherlands with an MSc degree in Infection & Immunity. As part of the MSc programme, she worked as a research intern in the labs of Prof Linde Meyaard (UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands) and Prof Hidde Ploegh (Whitehead Institute, Boston, USA).

In 2018, Arwen obtained her PhD degree from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Under the supervision of Prof Guus Rimmelzwaan, she investigated properties of the modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vaccine platform and worked on MVA-based influenza vaccine candidates capable of inducing broadly protective immune responses.

Subsequently, Arwen joined the lab of Prof Geoffrey Smith (University of Cambridge) as a postdoc. She moved to the Boyle lab in October 2020 to work on the characterisation of TAPBPR function.

January 2023, Arwen received a Wellcome Early-Career Award and started her lab researching MHC-I antigen processing and presentation in viral immune detection and evasion.