Staff & Faculty Directory

Noura El Habbal, Ph.D., R.D., is a teaching assistant professor in the School of Health Professions, where she also serves as the DATA 101 coordinator. Her research focuses on lactation science, with an emphasis on the origins of the human milk microbiome and its role in shaping infant health.

At New York Tech, El Habbal teaches undergraduate courses that build foundational skills in research, data analysis, and professional development.

She earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Biochemical Nutrition from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 2022. Her dissertation, “Early Life Exposures and Milk Composition Affect Offspring Health,” examined fetal and lactational programming through studies of placental and mammary gland development in mouse models. She also analyzed clinical data to assess how variations in human breast milk macronutrients and fatty acid composition influence infant growth.

After completing her Ph.D., she conducted a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Boston College, where she continued studying the human milk microbiome using mouse models and clinical data from preterm infants. She also worked on assessing maternal prenatal dietary intake and its role in infant growth in both term and preterm cohorts, as well as examining systemic and intestinal inflammatory markers in preterm infants.