Bharat graduated with a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, UK. His studies were supported by a Rhodes Scholarship. He then undertook research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany for his PhD working with John A. G. Briggs. He studied the structure and assembly of pathogenic viruses using cryogenic electron microscopy and tomography. His work on several viral capsid proteins improved understanding of how viruses are assembled within infected cells.