With help from local high school science teachers, University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a wireless device that they hope will be safer and less invasive than an existing vagus nerve stimulator.

The new device, a radio-frequency-powered neural stimulator, would allow patients to wear a two-inch device containing the stimulator's battery outside the body, clipped under a shirt collar.

Like the vagus nerve stimulator developed by Cyberonics Inc., the new device would require an incision in the neck to implant electrodes around the vagus nerve.

Unlike the Cyberonics stimulator, the new device would not require a second incision in the chest to implant a pulse generator containing the battery, or tunneling under the skin to thread a wire from the generator to electrodes placed on the vagus nerve. Its use thus could reduce the risk of infection or other surgical complications and would eliminate the need for surgery to replace the battery.

Some companies have shown interest in licensing the technology, said Marlin Mickle, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt. It would be up to the company to further develop it and seek Food and Drug Administration approval.

The wireless stimulator was adapted from an earlier device developed by Dr. Mickle that uses radio-frequency technology for deep-brain stimulation of patients with Parkinson's disease. Michael Lovell, an associate professor of industrial and mechanical engineering, graduate student Steven Hackworth and Dr. Robert Sclabassi, professor of neurological surgery, also were involved.

Last summer, four science teachers from Allderdice, Peabody, Perry and Westinghouse high schools -- Theodora Bennett, Robert Cuda, Kathy Hoelzle and Eric Laurenson -- began working at Pitt under a program funded by the National Science Foundation, helping to convert the device for use in treating seizures.

During that process, the FDA approved the Cyberonics device for treatment of depression, and Pitt researchers believe their device also could be used for that purpose.