Research projects at Pitt and University of Michigan are the last ones standing in a a bracket-style contest to determine "the best innovation from the top research institutions in the United States." The winner will be decided by popular vote.  (You can vote by following a link at the end of this story.) The competition, held by STAT, the Boston-based e-daily about health, medicine, and scientific discovery, started early in March with 32 contenders, including Stanford, Weill Cornell and Johns Hopkins.  Nominees all have had a paper published in a 2016 peer-reviewed journal regarding an innovative health or medicine research development.

Pitt's research paper, "Intracortical microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex," appeared in Science Translational Medicine in October.

Here's the text that accompanies Pitt's entry:

"As biomedical engineers develop prosthetics that are responsive to brain signals, touch has been a difficult sensation to replicate, but an essential one to restore hand function. This team from Pitt has developed a series of implantable electrodes for people with spinal cord injury that helps them feel 'pressure' associated with touch. In one test, the patient felt as though the sensations were coming from his own hand." (For more on the project, click here.) The Michigan entry is for a rapid diagnostic test for sepsis.

You can cast a vote by following this link. Voting ends Sunday, April 2.