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Aarren completed his PhD in 2019 at the University of Leeds, UK where he investigated how metastatic cancer cells are disseminated to secondary organs via their interactions with the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels. Following this, he moved to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden for a postdoctoral position in the research group of Professor Lars Holmgren. Here he studied how mechanical forces acting on endothelial cells of the aorta are transduced to the nucleus to regulate chromatin and transcription. This work outlined how mechanical forces are sensed through a junctional-cytoskeletal-nuclear connection to modulate transcription of the mechanosensitive protein YAP. Aarren then joined the lab of Sara Wickström in the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Muenster, Germany. Here he continues to investigate nuclear mechanosensing in the vascular system with multiple collaborations across departments of the MPI. In his free time, Aarren enjoys playing niche sports such as canoe polo and Gaelic football as well as cooking, reading and trying out new cafes.