Arwen F Altenburg PhD

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

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Subsequently, Arwen continued her research at the University of Cambridge as a postdoc. She joined the lab of Prof Geoffrey Smith to study immune responses to vaccinia virus. In October 2020, she moved to the lab of Prof Louise Boyle to work on the characterisation of the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) peptide editor TAPBPR.

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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.