A scanning electron micrograph of a mouse nerve cell that is affected by misfolded versions of the proteins amyloid and beta, which are thought to drive Alzheimer’s disease LINNEA RUNDGREN/LINEAR IMAGING/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Interest is growing in using the brain’s waste-disposal system to delay or ease Alzheimer’s disease . Now, a new technique that helps clear toxic clumps of Alzheimer’s-associated proteins from the brains of mice has been found to boost their performance on memory and learning tests. This is done by targeting a receptor, called DDR2, that is more commonly being investigated for lung health . “If you’re blocking the DDR2 pathway, theoretically there will be less amyloid-beta protein produced and, at the same time, it will boost the waste clearance for the protein,” says Jia Li at Guangzhou Medical University in China.…