Harsha Karanchi, MD - MUSC Health Endocrinology at West Ashley Medical Pavilion - ENDO HW2

Dr. Joshua Neal is an Obesity Medicine physician at MUSC, where he is an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before attending medical school at Albany Medical College. Dr. Neal completed his residency in Family Medicine at Eisenhower Army Medical Center and served four years abroad with the U.S. Army. Before joining MUSC, he was the regional medical director for Ascension St. Vincent's Bariatric Medical Weight Management Program. He has also worked in urgent and primary care.Dr. Neal is board-certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine. He has special interests in weight management and culinary medicine. His background in family medicine, urgent care, concierge medicine, and military medicine helps to inform a comprehensive approach to patient care. He understands that everyone has a unique relationship with food and weight. He works to support each patient in reaching their own goals while improving the determinants of metabolic health.

Dr. Nicholas Shungu is a family medicine physician at MUSC Health who strives to provide compassionate and high quality care to patients of all ages and backgrounds. His clinical interests include chronic disease management, self-care, care for underserved populations, and medical student education. He provides office-based procedures including trigger point injections, joint injections, long-term contraception, and treatment of warts and calluses. He has a special interest in care for adolescents and individuals with HIV. Dr. Shungu attended Duke University for college and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in family medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, where he also served as chief resident. He practiced in Philadelphia and Chapel Hill before relocating to Charleston. While practicing in North Carolina, he was recognized with the UNC Health Care and UNC Faculty Physicians Award for Carolina Care Excellence. He has also been the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson University Department of Family Medicine Faculty Teaching Award. Dr. Shungu is committed to addressing healthcare disparities through patient care, teaching, and research. He loves to learn from and grow with his patients. His favorite part of practicing medicine are the relationships he is able to establish with a diverse group of people. He is proudly Safe Zone trained.

Dr. Gary Gilkeson is a Distinguished University Professor of medicine/microbiology and immunology. He is also an Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development. He received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He subsequently completed his internal medicine training at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Following four years as a Medical Officer in the Air Force, he completed a rheumatology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center in 1989. He joined the faculty of Duke at that time and achieved the position of Associate Professor of Medicine prior to moving to MUSC in 1996.Dr. Gilkeson is the author of over 250 publications and has received numerous honors including summa cum laude graduate of Baylor University and was a third-year Alpha Omega Alpha initiate at UT Southwestern. He has served on numerous NIH study sections and journal editorial boards. He has served on the national board of directors for both the Arthritis Foundation and the Lupus Foundation of America. He has served on numerous national committees for both the Arthritis Foundation, the American College of Rheumatology, and the Research and Education Foundation of the ACR. Dr. Gilkeson is past chair of the medical and scientific advisory board for the Lupus Foundation of America. His honors include receiving the MUSC Health Outstanding Clinician Award for 2007, a National Volunteer Service Award from the Arthritis Foundation, 2013 Peggy Schachte Research Mentor Award, 2016 American College of Rheumatology Award for Outstanding Investigational Mentoring, and was named 2017 Physician in Chief Pro-Tempore at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. In 2018 he was named a Master of the American College of Rheumatology and as a Distinguished University Professor at MUSC.Dr. Gilkeson's research and clinical interests are both in lupus, particularly lupus nephritis. He also maintains a clinical interest in the disease retroperitoneal fibrosis. His clinical focus in lupus nephritis is the factors resulting in the ethnic disparity in outcomes in lupus comparing African Americans to Caucasians. He, along with Dr. Diane Kamen, has established the SLEIGH study, SLE in Gullah Health, to identify genetic and environmental factors that result in this disparity.Dr. Gilkeson's current major effort is in defining the safety and efficacy of umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of refractory lupus in a multi center clinical trial of which MUSC is the directing center. Members of the M.U.S.C.L.E. Research Group at MUSC are studying transcriptional regulators in lupus, the role of the complement system in lupus and the role of estrogen receptors in lupus. The lupus research group is also identifying and validating new biomarkers in lupus and participants are active in the lupus genetics consortium defining genetic causes of lupus. The lupus research group is also involved in a number of clinical trials, both investigator-initiated and industry sponsored.