Innovation in healthcare often begins when someone notices a problem that others have accepted as normal. For Selena Shirkin, that problem was the lack of specialized tools used in fetal surgery. While still a student, she observed how surgeons performing delicate procedures on unborn babies frequently relied on instruments originally designed for other medical specialties. The mismatch created unnecessary risks for both mothers and babies.
Instead of viewing this challenge as someone else’s responsibility, Shirkin decided to find a solution. That decision eventually led to the creation of Fetal Therapy Technologies, a medical device company focused on making fetal surgery safer and more effective.
Today, Selena Shirkin is recognized as a rising leader in the medical technology sector. As Founder and CEO of Fetal Therapy Technologies, she is working to address one of the most complex areas of maternal-fetal medicine while demonstrating how young innovators can transform healthcare through practical engineering solutions.
Early Life and Educational Background
Selena Shirkin has a strong interest in biomedical engineering and healthcare innovation from an early stage in her academic journey.
Shirkin studied Biomedical Engineering at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, an institution widely recognized for its leadership in medical research and healthcare innovation. During her time there, she developed a reputation for combining technical knowledge with an entrepreneurial mindset. Rather than focusing only on classroom learning, she actively sought opportunities to solve real-world healthcare problems.
Before launching Fetal Therapy Technologies, Shirkin worked on another healthcare innovation called Stetpulse, a technology designed to sterilize stethoscopes during clinical practice. The project attracted support from VentureWell, an organization that funds student innovators and entrepreneurs. This early success demonstrated her ability to identify healthcare challenges and develop practical solutions around them.
These experiences helped shape her understanding of medical device development, product design, and healthcare entrepreneurship long before she founded her own company.
Discovering a Critical Healthcare Problem
The idea behind Fetal Therapy Technologies emerged during a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering program focused on solving unmet clinical needs.
As Shirkin and her team researched maternal-fetal medicine, they learned about fetal surgery, a highly specialized field that allows surgeons to treat certain life-threatening conditions before a baby is born. While these procedures can save lives, they also carry significant risks.
One of the most serious complications is membrane rupture. During fetal surgery, surgeons must access the uterus through the mother’s abdomen. Existing surgical tools were often adapted from other specialties such as cardiovascular surgery, laparoscopy, or neurosurgery. These instruments were never specifically designed for the unique environment of the uterus. Research conducted by Shirkin’s team showed that this mismatch contributed to complications that could lead to premature labor and poor outcomes for patients.
For many innovators, this observation might have remained an academic exercise. For Shirkin, it became a mission.
Founding Fetal Therapy Technologies
Fetal Therapy Technologies was founded in 2024 following work that began as a Johns Hopkins undergraduate engineering project. The company grew from a classroom concept into a startup focused on improving the safety of fetal surgery. Shirkin became the company’s CEO and co-founder, working alongside co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Eric McAlexander.
The company’s central goal is straightforward: create surgical instruments specifically designed for fetal procedures instead of relying on equipment borrowed from other medical fields.
Working closely with specialists from the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy, the team developed a novel uterine access port system. The technology is designed to make entry into the uterus safer while reducing the risk of membrane rupture and other complications.
The company’s approach reflects a broader philosophy that guides many successful medical technology startups: understand the clinical problem deeply before designing the solution.
Rather than beginning with a technology and searching for a use case, Shirkin and her team started with extensive observation of surgeons and clinical workflows. This allowed them to identify real-world challenges that existing products were not addressing.
Building a Company Around Clinical Need
One of the defining characteristics of Selena Shirkin’s leadership has been her commitment to clinical collaboration.
Instead of developing products in isolation, Fetal Therapy Technologies works directly with maternal-fetal medicine experts and surgeons. This close partnership helps ensure that product development remains focused on actual clinical requirements.
According to interviews and public presentations, Shirkin spent significant time observing procedures and learning from physicians. During one observation, she noticed surgeons struggling with tools that were poorly suited to the tasks they were performing. Those experiences reinforced the need for purpose-built fetal surgery instruments.
This hands-on approach has become a core part of the company’s culture. Clinical feedback influences product design decisions, helping the company create solutions that can fit naturally into surgical practice.
Funding, Awards, and Growth
Although Fetal Therapy Technologies remains an early-stage startup, the company has achieved notable recognition and secured several important sources of support.
The startup was selected for Baltimore’s RealLIST Startups 2025, which highlights promising emerging companies shaping the region’s future economy. This recognition reflected growing interest in the company’s technology and mission.
The company also received support through the Pava LaPere Innovation Awards. Shirkin publicly stated that the funding would help advance development of the company’s FetalCare port system and accelerate efforts to improve fetal surgical safety.
Additional support came through Johns Hopkins entrepreneurship initiatives. Fetal Therapy Technologies was recognized through the university’s startup ecosystem and received opportunities for mentorship, commercialization training, and entrepreneurial development. The company was also listed among ventures supported through Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures programs.
Shirkin has also discussed pursuing non-dilutive funding opportunities, including grants, startup competitions, and state innovation programs. In interviews, she highlighted the importance of grants and entrepreneurial resources in helping early-stage medical device companies advance their technologies.
Leadership Style
Selena Shirkin’s leadership style appears to be highly collaborative, mission-driven, and evidence-based.
One of her strengths is her ability to bring together people from different disciplines. Building a successful medical device company requires expertise in engineering, medicine, regulatory affairs, business strategy, and clinical research. Shirkin has consistently emphasized teamwork and mentorship as important parts of the company’s growth.
She also demonstrates a strong willingness to learn from experts. Rather than assuming she has all the answers, she actively seeks guidance from physicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry advisors. This openness helps create an environment where innovation is driven by evidence and practical experience.
Another notable aspect of her leadership is persistence. Medical device development is a long and demanding process that often requires years of testing, validation, regulatory work, and fundraising. Shirkin has continued pushing the project forward from its student origins into a growing healthcare venture despite these challenges.
Industry Expertise and Vision
Shirkin’s expertise sits at the intersection of biomedical engineering, medical device innovation, maternal-fetal medicine, and healthcare entrepreneurship.
Her work focuses on a specialized area that has historically received limited attention from the medical device industry. Fetal surgery remains a relatively small market compared with other healthcare sectors, which has contributed to the lack of dedicated instruments available for surgeons.
Rather than viewing the market’s size as a limitation, Shirkin sees it as an opportunity for meaningful impact.
Her vision extends beyond a single product. Public discussions suggest that Fetal Therapy Technologies aims to build a platform of technologies that can improve fetal surgery through better instruments, safer procedures, and enhanced training capabilities.
This broader vision could help advance an entire field of medicine rather than simply introducing one new device.
Improving Efficiency in Healthcare
The impact of Fetal Therapy Technologies goes beyond patient safety.
By designing tools specifically for fetal surgery, the company aims to make procedures more efficient and predictable. When surgeons have instruments optimized for their tasks, they can potentially work more effectively and reduce procedural complexity.
Improved surgical efficiency can benefit hospitals, physicians, mothers, and babies alike. Better-designed devices may reduce complications, lower healthcare costs associated with adverse outcomes, and support more consistent surgical performance.
The company’s uterine access port system is intended to leverage the unique properties of the uterine environment while creating safer access for surgeons. If successfully commercialized, such innovations could contribute to improved clinical workflows and better patient outcomes.
Personal Approach to Innovation
One theme consistently appears throughout Selena Shirkin’s work: solving problems that matter.
Her projects have focused on practical healthcare challenges rather than technology for its own sake. Whether working on stethoscope sterilization or fetal surgery devices, she has shown a preference for innovations that address clear clinical needs.
She also demonstrates a strong commitment to women’s health and maternal-fetal care. Her involvement in healthcare innovation initiatives focused on women’s health reflects an interest in addressing areas that have historically been underserved by medical technology development.
This purpose-driven mindset helps explain why her work has attracted attention from both academic and entrepreneurial communities.
Future Outlook
The future appears promising for both Selena Shirkin and Fetal Therapy Technologies.
The company continues to advance its technology through prototype development, testing, and commercialization planning. Public statements indicate ongoing efforts to generate data, conduct studies, and move toward future regulatory pathways.
As fetal surgery continues to evolve, demand for specialized instruments is likely to grow. Fetal Therapy Technologies is positioning itself to become a meaningful contributor to that evolution.
For Shirkin personally, her trajectory suggests continued leadership within the medical technology sector. Her combination of engineering expertise, entrepreneurial experience, and commitment to healthcare innovation places her among a new generation of founders working to solve complex medical challenges.
Selena Shirkin represents a modern kind of healthcare entrepreneur, one who combines technical expertise with a deep understanding of clinical needs. Through Fetal Therapy Technologies, she is addressing a long-standing gap in fetal surgery by developing instruments designed specifically for one of medicine’s most delicate specialties.
Her journey from biomedical engineering student to startup founder demonstrates how observation, curiosity, and determination can lead to meaningful innovation. While the company is still in its early stages, its mission has already attracted recognition, funding support, and industry attention.
Most importantly, Shirkin’s work is focused on improving outcomes for mothers and babies. By creating safer tools for fetal surgery, she is helping advance a field where even small improvements can have life-changing consequences. That commitment to practical impact continues to define both her leadership and the future of Fetal Therapy Technologies.
