Dr. Bachman received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan Medical Scientist Training Program. His thesis work in the Laboratory of Michele Swanson, PhD focused on virulence gene regulation of Legionella pneumophila. He completed a Clinical Pathology Residency and Clinical Microbiology Fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He also performed postdoctoral research on the host response to Klebsiella pneumoniae iron metabolism in the laboratory of Jeffrey Weiser, MD.

 K. pneumoniae is a common cause of hospital-acquired infections, including urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, and pneumonia. These infections are increasingly difficult to treat due to antibiotic resistance. Recently, strains of K. pneumoniae have emerged in the United States and throughout the world that are resistant to carbapenems, antibiotics of last resort against severe gram-negative infections. Carbapenem resistant K. pneumoniae and other related bacteria are collectively termed Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).  CDC Director Thomas Frieden has termed CRE "nightmare bacteria" because of high mortality from untreatable infections.