news

Mar 18, 2026 πŸ“„ New Preprint Published
🧭 Our new bioRxiv preprint introduces mCanonicalTockySeq, a framework that brings an experimental time anchor into single-cell transcriptomics to analyse temporal and developmental progression together. Using the Nr4a3-Tocky Fluorescent Timer system, this study resolves signalling-linked temporal progression alongside thymocyte differentiation and shows that the learned reference structure can be transferred across species to organise human thymic single-cell data.
  • Irie N, Reda O, Satou Y, Ono M (2026). Canonical Analysis of Fluorescent Timer-Anchored Transcriptomes Resolves Joint Temporal and Developmental Progression. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.16.711988 πŸ”¬πŸ§¬
Mar 13, 2026 πŸ“„ New Preprint Published πŸš€ Our new bioRxiv preprint introduces CanonicalTockySeq, a framework that integrates Nr4a3-Tocky Fluorescent Timer signalling history with single-cell RNA-seq to resolve dynamic T-cell states in cancer immunotherapy. Using an experimentally anchored canonical manifold, this study separates temporal progression from signalling strength at single-cell resolution and shows that effective checkpoint blockade is associated with reduced persistence of antigen engagement, suppression of exhaustion-associated TCR signalling programmes, and maintenance of progenitor-like features linked to durable antitumour responses.
  • Hassan J, Reda O, Irie N, Pedersen M, Foo S, Appleton L, Okazaki I, Okazaki T, Satou Y, Harrington K, Melcher A, Ono M (2026). Temporal Mechanisms of T-Cell Fate Decisions under Immune Checkpoint Blockade Resolved by CanonicalTockySeq. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.10.710825 πŸ”¬πŸ§¬
Jul 02, 2025 πŸ“„ New Paper Published πŸ•’ Our paper in Biology Methods and Protocols introduces TockyLocus, an open-source framework for the quantitative and standardised analysis of Fluorescent Timer flow cytometry data in Nr4a3-Tocky and Foxp3-Tocky mice. By optimising analysis of Timer Angle and establishing a biologically grounded five-locus categorisation scheme, this study provides a robust and interpretable method for analysing transcriptional dynamics, enabling reproducible statistical testing and visualisation without reliance on arbitrary gating.
  • Ono M (2025). TockyLocus: quantitative analysis of flow cytometric fluorescent timer data in Nr4a3-Tocky and Foxp3-Tocky mice. Biology Methods and Protocols 10(1): bpaf060. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomethods/bpaf060 πŸ”¬πŸ§¬
Jul 01, 2025 πŸ“„ New Paper Published 🌟 Our paper in Nature Communications presents a new framework for decoding temporal transcriptional dynamics from Fluorescent Timer data using an integrative combination of molecular genetics, flow cytometry, and machine learning. Using a convolutional neural network (ConvNet)-based approach together with Foxp3-Tocky Fluorescent Timer reporter mice and CRISPR gene editing, this study reveals previously unrecognised features of Foxp3 transcriptional dynamics, including roles of CNS2 in regulating transcription frequency and age-dependent differences from neonatal to aged mice.
  • Irie N, Takeda N, Satou Y, Araki K, Ono M (2025). Machine learning-assisted decoding of temporal transcriptional dynamics via fluorescent timer. Nature Communications 16:5720. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61279-y πŸ”¬πŸ§ 
Feb 09, 2025 πŸ“„ New Paper Published 🌟 Excited to share my new publication on TockyPrep, now published in BMC BioinformaticsπŸš€ The TockyPrep R package automates and standardizes flow cytometric analysis of Fluorescent Timer reporters, unlocking the analysis of Nr4a3 Tocky mice and other Timer reporters🐭
Dec 01, 2024 πŸ“„ New Paper Published: πŸš€ Thrilled to share our latest research! Our study, β€œA multidimensional toolkit for elucidating temporal trajectories in cell development in vivo,” is now available in Development.
  • Masahiro Ono & Tessa Crompton. A multidimensional toolkit for elucidating temporal trajectories in cell development in vivo. Development 2024; dev.204255. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.204255 πŸ”¬πŸ§¬
The computational package TockyDevelopment is available at the GitHub Document. Read my blog entry.
Nov 15, 2024 πŸ’» New R Package Released – TockyLocus: Our second Tocky package has been released at our GitHube site! TockyLocus is essential for quantitative analysis of Fluorescent Timer data πŸ•’
  • Our preprint is accessible here 🌸
Nov 06, 2024 πŸ’» New R Package Released – TockyPrep: We have released the TockyPrep package, which offers data preprocessing methods for Tocky data (and any Fluorescent Timer data). Such data would not be fully useful without these proper analytic methods.
  • πŸ“„ Our preprint is accessible here 🌱
Nov 05, 2024 πŸ’» New R Package Released – GatingTree: A ground-breaking R package for analysing high-dimensional cytometry data without the use of dimensional reduction. πŸš€ This innovative approach allows for more precise and detailed data analysis, revolutionizing how we understand complex biological datasets.
Jun 13, 2024 πŸ“„ New Paper Published: Our review article on the relationship between Foxp3+ regulatory T cells and the human retrovirus infection. We show that T cells constitute a spectrum of self-reactivity and the activation mechanisms within self-reactive T cells are exploited by HTLV-1 infection.
Mar 25, 2024 πŸš€ A new website has launched! 🌐✨