Owen graduated with an MRes in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine from the University of Manchester. He subsequently completed a PhD at the University of Birmingham that sought to compare the efficacy of stem cells isolated from adipose, bone marrow and dental pulp for the regeneration of mineralised tissues.

In 2016 Owen was awarded a competitive EPSRC E-TERM fellowship in collaboration with the University of Birmingham where he worked as an honorary visiting fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering with Professor Liam Grover. During his fellowship he pioneered the application of cell-derived nanoparticles, termed extracellular vesicles (EVs), for musculoskeletal therapies.

In April 2018 Owen was appointed as a lecturer in Molecular and Regenerative Biomedicine under the Loughborough Excellence 100 scheme. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021.