Welcoming New Appointments

Joseph Lee, MD

Joseph Lee, MD, is a fellowship-trained interventional physiatrist at The Mount Sinai Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Lee focuses on nonoperative treatment of the spine using a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to improve and restore a patient’s function. He treats a wide range of spinal conditions, including neck and back pain, pinched nerves, sciatica, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, arthritis, joint pain, facet pain, and sacroiliac joint pain. He has extensive experience and expertise in interventional, nonsurgical techniques to treat these conditions, including fluoroscopically guided spinal procedures such as epidural and facet injections, medial branch blocks, and radiofrequency ablation, as well as ultrasound-guided joint injections. Dr. Lee also performs electrodiagnostic nerve studies, and has a special interest in regenerative medicine, including platelet-rich plasma therapy.

Dr. Lee joined the Spine Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital after being in practice for more than a decade on Long Island, where he was in private practice and also part of the Spine Center team at Northwell Health. He also served as a clinical assistant professor for the residency training program in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Northwell Health and Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University, and has enjoyed teaching residents and medical students.

Dr. Lee received his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and completed his residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Hackensack Meridian JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in New Jersey, where he was selected as chief resident. Following his residency, Dr. Lee underwent fellowship training in interventional spine and sports medicine at The Spine Center of New York at Beth Israel Medical Center (now Mount Sinai Beth Israel) in New York City in 2009. He has published articles and chapters in multiple textbooks, and presented at national and local conferences.

Dr. Lee has been selected for multiple honors, including The New York Times’ Super Doctors, Best Doctors in America, and America’s Top Physicians by Consumers’ Research Council of America.

Nilsson Holguin, MD

Nilsson Holguin, MD, is Assistant Professor of Orthopedics at Icahn Mount Sinai. He received his PhD from Stony Brook University in biomedical engineering and performed his postdoctoral fellowship training in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. His first academic appointment was at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. The focus of his research is clarifying the adaptation of the spine on a molecular, cellular, and tissue level to aging, injury, genetics, and biological sex, in order to develop therapeutics for spinal degeneration and subsequent back pain.

Dr. Holguin’s work has expanded the role of mechanical forces in intervertebral disc degeneration and in bone formation. From independent research, Dr. Holguin finds that therapeutics for osteoporosis may potentially be repurposed to tackle intervertebral disc degeneration, which does not have any Food and Drug Administration-approved therapeutics. Further, work along this line of research has uncovered a new role for an inflammatory-related protein in intervertebral disc degeneration and in osteoblast- and osteoclast-related regulation of bone mass. Dr. Holguin is a Biomedical Laureate at Icahn Mount Sinai and the recipient of the Harold M. Frost Young Investigator Award, the National Research Service Award postdoctoral award, and other awards. In addition, Dr. Holguin is a member and committee officer for the American Society for Bone Mineral Research and the Orthopaedic Research Society.

Fei Fang, PhD

Fei Fang, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Orthopedics in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopedics at Icahn Mount Sinai. Dr. Fang specializes in deciphering cues of tendon and tendon enthesis mechanobiology and developmental biology. Dr. Fang aims to combine the research results with tissue engineering and cell therapies for promoting regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues, with a focus on tendon, ligament, and meniscus. Dr. Fang received her MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. After completing postdoctoral training in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University, she joined Mount Sinai in August 2022 to lead the Fang Laboratory for Musculoskeletal Mechanobiology and Cell Niche at Icahn Mount Sinai.