Murthy is INSA senior professor in the Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. He obtained his bachelor's from Bangalore University (1970), master's from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (1972) and PhD from the IISc, Bangalore (1977). His research interests are X-ray crystallography, protein and virus structure. He has been awarded the Shantiswaroop Bhatnagar Prize, Rustum Choksi award, GN Ramachandran commemoration award, Hari Om Ashram Trust Award, Jagdish Chandra Bose Award for Life Sciences and G.N. Ramachandram gold medal for excellence in biological sciences. He has been elected to the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, and the National Academy of Sciences, India.