[4] It was also in 1962 that he switched to the Central Institute of Microbiology and Experimental Therapy in Jena, taking a position as leader of a working group.
He remained at the Institute till 1979, heading up the Immunology Department from 1971 and the Experimental Therapy section from 1976, which was also the year in which he was appointed to a professorship.
From 1984, his ability to work began to be restricted by serious illness,[2] and the directorship of the institute passed to the immunologist Günter Pasternak [de].
[2] Even after the changes, which in October 1989 crystallised into political reunification, Zschiesche continued working at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (which was the successor institution to the ZIM) until shortly before his death.
Research interests of Karl-Wolfgang Zschiesche included the metastasis of malignant tumours of the chest cavity, and the experimental treatment of Amyloidosis.