[1] He started his career at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, simultaneously doing his doctoral research at the University of Madras to secure a PhD in biochemistry in 1951.
The next four years were spent in the US as a post-doctoral fellow at University of Madison, Wisconsin and Columbia University before returning to India to join Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, Delhi as a senior research officer in 1956 and he stayed at the institute holding various positions till his superannuation as a professor and head of the department of biochemistry in 1988.
After his official retirement, he served as an emeritus professor at Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (then known as the Centre for Biochemical Technology) till 1994.
[8][note 2] The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research awarded Venkitasubramanian the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for his contributions to biological sciences in 1968.
[1] The family was staying in Pune but moved later to Ottapalam in his home state where he died on 8 November 2003, succumbing to progressive supranuclear palsy.