Dr. Bauer received a B.S. in Biology from Brown University and obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His graduate thesis in Cell and Molecular Biology was under the mentorship of Craig Thompson, M.D., investigating mechanisms of growth factor regulation of hematopoietic cell metabolism. He Bauer trained in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His postdoctoral work was in the laboratory of Stuart Orkin, M.D., where he studied the role of common genetic variation in the regulation of fetal hemoglobin.

Bauer is a Principal Investigator and Staff Physician at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. His honors have included the American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award (2014), NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2016), Society for Pediatric Research's Young Investigator Award (2017), and Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists Finalist (2018).