Dr Ryan, two other Otago University scientists and a PhD graduate were awarded a total of $471,944 to support their brain research in the foundation's December funding round.
Funding totalling $1,154,852 was provided to researchers throughout the country in this round.
Dr Ryan's team has found that a protein, called secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha, has therapeutic potential because it can protect against learning and memory loss in a model of the disease. Her planned research, backed by the $186,421 grant, aims to further that potential.
Dr Ryan, of the Otago anatomy department, said it was ''really good'' to be able to take the research further, and at a ''deeper level''.
And the funding would help researchers to understand the potentially therapeutic processes involved.
Researchers would also investigate if the effects of protein treatment could be detected in blood plasma, further developing its potential.
Otago psychology department graduate Dr Robert Munn was awarded the 2014 Neurological Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, amounting to $153,249.
This will enable him to continue his memory research at Stanford University. Otago psychology academic Prof David Bilkey, who was Dr Munn's doctoral adviser, said the award was ''wonderful''.
Dr Munn's cutting-edge research would provide important new information about how the brain represented the spatial environment and how related information was stored in memory.
This was basic research but was also relevant to Alzheimer's disease, in which spatial disorientation was among the symptoms, he said.
Associate Prof Greg Anderson, of anatomy, and Dr Stephanie Hughes, of biochemistry, also received project grants, amounting to $120,274 and $12,000, respectively.
Prof Anderson's team recently discovered that treatment with a molecule called RFRP-3 induced anxious behaviour in rats, and these responses were overcome by blocking the molecule's receptor with a specific drug.
This study will determine if the molecule contributes to stress-related disorders, potentially providing an ''entirely new avenue'' for future treatments.
Dr Hughes' laboratory recently identified a new candidate drug for treating one genetic form of Batten disease, and her study will test this drug in a second genetic form, award officials said.
Batten disease refers to a group of inherited neurological diseases that result in premature death, with no effective treatment.
