Despite his isolation of ATP, Subbarow did not gain tenure at Harvard University[2][3] though he would lead some of America's most important medical research during World War II.

He was born in a Telugu Brahmin family in Bhimavaram, Madras Presidency, now in West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh in India.

[citation needed] Following Gandhi's call to boycott British goods he started wearing khadi surgical dress; this incurred the displeasure of M. C. Bradfield, his surgery professor.

The promise of support from Malladi Satyalingam Naicker Charities in Kakinada, and financial assistance raised by his father-in-law, enabled Subbarow to proceed to the U.S.

After his work on folic acid and with considerable input from Dr. Sidney Farber, he developed the important anti-cancer drug methotrexate – one of the first cancer chemotherapy agents and still in widespread clinical use.

[7][8][9] Subbarow also discovered the basis for the anthelmintic diethylcarbamazine (Hetrazan), which was later recommended by the World Health Organization as a treatment for filariasis.

Duggar identified the antibiotic as the product of an actinomycete he cultured from a soil sample collected from Sanborn Field at the University of Missouri.