The breakthrough means they can now see exactly how mutations in the parkin gene cause the disease in an estimated one in 10 patients with Parkinson’s.
And it offers a realistic model to test new treatments on – a hurdle that has blighted research efforts until now.
The team told Nature Communications their work was a "game-changer".
Lab-grown
"This is the first time that human dopamine neurons have ever been generated from Parkinson’s disease patients with parkin mutations," said Dr Jian Feng who led the investigations.