Jessica Chastain flaunts Elie Saab at Breakthrough awards
US actress and producer Jessica Chastain sparkled in a purple jumpsuit by Lebanese designer
Elie Saab at the Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Chastain — who has previously championed looks by Lebanon's Zuhair Murad, among other Arab designers — hit the red carpet in the sequined number that boasted a plunging neckline and bootleg-style pants. Celebrity stylist Elizabeth Stewart finished off Chastain's look with a statement necklace by Damiani jewelry.
French Canadian scientist Michel Sadelain was awarded an “Oscars of Science” for his research into genetically modifying immune cells to fight cancer at the event, AFP reported.
The genetic engineer was awarded the Breakthrough
Prize at a glitzy ceremony attended by tech giants such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, and an array of celebrities including Chastain, Robert Downey Jr. and Bradley Cooper.
His work has led to the development of a new form of therapy called CAR-T that has shown exceptional efficacy against certain blood cancers.
“This prize is an extraordinary recognition,” Sadelain told AFP on the red carpet at the Oscars Museum. “It's all the more of an honor because ... my scientific colleagues told me for a long time that it would never work.
“The greatest pleasure, however, is to see patients... who no longer had a chance and who thank us, who are alive today thanks to CAR-T cells,” added Sadelain.
Launched in 2010, the Breakthrough Prize awards “the world's most brilliant minds” in fields including life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics, styling itself as the Silicon Valleybacked answer to the Nobels. Dubbed the “Oscars for Science,” founding sponsors include Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. Sadelain will split the $3 million prize money with American immunologist Carl June, who also led groundbreaking research into the field independently of his co-winner.
Sadelain studied medicine in Paris, then immunology in Canada, before taking up postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989.
Other celebrity guests at the event includes actresses Zoe Saldana and Margot Robbie, director Olivia Wilde and Oscarwinner Michelle Yeoh, among others.