[4] Wiles received her PhD from Edinburgh Napier University, conducting research at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (previously known as the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology), which is located in Oxford.

In 2007 she became a lecturer at Imperial College's Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity,[8] and in 2009 was awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and moved to the University of Auckland.

[7] About her work Wiles says "My career has been built on making nasty bacteria bioluminescent and using them for all sorts of things, including finding new medicines".

She is an active blogger on Sciblogs.co.nz, an online podcaster, a commentator on Radio New Zealand and appears on TV shows to discuss science stories in the news.

Wiles collaborated with artist Rebecca Klee on an installation at the Auckland Art in the Dark Festival in 2013, which featured Hawaiian bobtail squid and Aliivibrio fischeri.

[23] With cartoonist Toby Morris Wiles created "Flatten the Curve", an animated GIF comic, for The Spinoff to describe how simple citizen actions could vastly reduce the death toll.

Called "the defining chart of the coronavirus", it was based on earlier graphics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rosamund Pearce of The Economist, and Thomas Jefferson University professor Drew Harris.

[27] In mid-September 2021, Wiles criticised the New Zealand Government's decision to abandon its COVID-19 elimination strategy, asserting that this would put the unvaccinated and vulnerable at risk.

[28] During the launch of the COVID-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system) in December 2021, Wiles urged Aucklanders to put aside their summer holiday plans in order to contain the spread of the Delta variant within the community.

[29] In mid September 2022, Wiles criticised the Government's decision to drop the "traffic light system" as a "big, long term expensive, mistake."

[30] In late July 2021, Wiles and physicist Professor Shaun Hendy wrote an open counter-letter dissenting with seven fellow University of Auckland academics (Kendall Clements, Elizabeth Rata, Doug Elliffe, Garth Cooper, Robert Nola, John Werry, and Michael Corballis), who had penned a letter in the New Zealand Listener current affairs magazine arguing that mātauranga Māori (Māori indigenous knowledge) was incompatible with science.

[32] In March 2022 the New Zealand Media Council upheld a complaint that a column by Wiles published by Stuff on 20 December 2021 about the Listener Seven had breached press standards.

The Media Council took particular issue with Wiles' claim that the seven professors had intimidated junior colleagues with lawyers' letters was inaccurate and should not have been made.

[34] Wiles had been compared to Adolf Hitler and Satanists, and also had threats of being hung, raped, executed, and sentenced to long jail terms.

[37] In August 2021, the university had advised them to reduce their public commentary and social media interaction, which Hendy and Wiles regarded as insufficient.

In response to these incidents, University lawyers raised concerns that media coverage of the court case could create a health and safety issue.

[8][44] Commenting on the book, University of Otago infectious diseases expert Professor Kurt Krause described it as "a clear call to action for New Zealanders on one of the most critical issues we face".

[44] Sarah-Jane O'Connor from the Science Media Centre writes that the book "[…]Antibiotic Resistance will provide an excellent tutorial for those who know there's cause for concern but need some extra background to understand why".