LOS ANGELES: One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the abnormal clumping of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain, resulting in the death of brain cells. The discovery that small heat shock proteins prevent uncontrolled protein clumping has opened the possibility of developing drugs that emulate this effect. Now, a new study takes this a step further by revealing how small heat shock proteins interact with beta-amyloid to prevent clumping.