The past decade has been a fruitful one for geneticists involved in Parkinson's disease (PD) research. The initial hurdle of identifying the first gene underlying parkinsonism was cleared with apparent ease in 1997 and four additional genes have since been found to contain mutations causing this disorder. Driving this research is the belief that these data will highlight disease mechanisms and directly implicate a pathway amenable to therapeutic intervention. This article will focus on recent genetic advances in the field, focusing on data that suggest alpha-synuclein expression is key in the etiology of PD. In addition, it will discuss the recent identification of LRRK2 mutation as a cause of PD and the potential of this finding to provide further insight into disease.