Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder which is pathologically characterized by the presence of intracytoplasmic Lewy bodies, the major component of which are filaments consisting of alpha-synuclein. The present invention provides alpha-synuclein mutations which accelerate alpha-synuclein aggregation and can thus be utilized for transgenic animal production and generation of the first progressive PD model. Also provided is an in vitro aggregation assay which can be utilized to identify alpha-synuclein nucleation inhibitors for the treatment of PD.
