The microbiota in gastrointestinal tracts is recognized to play a pivotal role in the health of their hosts. Music and noise are prevalent environmental factors in human society and animal production and are reported to impact their welfare and physiological conditions; however, the information on the relationship between the microbiota, physiological status, and sound is limited. This study investigated the impact of music and white noise exposure in mice through 16s rRNA gene sequencing, enzyme assay, and qPCR. The results demonstrate that white noise induced oxidative stress in animals by decreasing serum SOD and GSH-PX activity while increasing LDH activity and MDA levels (p < 0.05). Conversely, no oxidative stress was observed in the music treatment group. The relative gene expression of IFN-γ and IL-1β decreased in the white noise group compared to the music and control groups. The 16s rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed that Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, and Proteobacteria were dominant among all the groups. Furthermore, the proportion of Firmicutes increased in the music treatment group but decreased in the white noise treatment group compared to the control group. In conclusion, white noise has detrimental impacts on the gut microbiota, antioxidant activity, and immunity of mice, while music is potentially beneficial.

In the marine environment, the symbiotic relationship between Symbiodinium and corals plays a pivotal role in coral growth and development. Against the backdrop of widespread coral bleaching due to the global climate change, the facile and efficient separation and enrichment of different strains of Symbiodinium hold significant importance for studying coral bleaching. This paper aims to report a platform that integrates dielectrophoretic and inertial forces for the separation and enrichment of Symbiodinium, comprising two modular components: a separation module and an enrichment module. Within the separation module, distinct strains of Symbiodinium undergo preliminary stratification in a contraction–expansion microchannel under the influence of inertial forces. Dielectrophoretic forces generated by the indium tin oxide electrodes divert them toward different outlets, achieving separation. In the enrichment module, the Symbiodinium collected from outlets is rapidly focused through a contraction–expansion microchannel and high-purity samples are concentrated through a single outlet. Evaluating separation efficiency is based on the purity of collected Symbiodinium at the outlet under three different flow rates: 13, 16, and 19 μl/min, while the concentration of enriched Symbiodinium at 100, 200, 300, and 400 μl/min flow rates evaluates the effectiveness of the enrichment process. The experimental results demonstrate a separation purity of approximately 90% and an enrichment factor of around 5.5. The platform holds promise for further applications in the selection and targeted enrichment of high-quality coral symbiotic algae, providing essential research foundations for the conservation of coral ecosystems.

Efficient extraction of specific particles from heterogeneous samples is critical for both fundamental research and clinical diagnostics. Optoelectronic tweezer (OET) technology, characterized by its non-contact and label-free manipulation capabilities, has emerged as a promising tool for such applications. However, conventional OET systems often rely on predefined optical patterns and offline trajectories, limiting their adaptability in complex or dynamic sample environments. To overcome these limitations, we propose an automated particle sorting strategy for OET systems based on an artificial potential field framework. This approach integrates real-time multi-object detection and tracking algorithms to enable accurate classification of particle types, while the artificial potential field dynamically optimizes the motion paths, effectively minimizing the risk of inter-particle collisions. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed system supports parallel, automated manipulation of multiple particles, achieving label-free, non-contact, real-time, and high-precision sorting. In validation experiments using mixed polystyrene particles, the method achieved a sorting purity of up to 95.11%. This study proposes an AI-enhanced optoelectronic-tweezers particle-sorting scheme that holds considerable application potential in biomedical and related fields.

Traditional methods of cultivating polyps are costly and time-consuming. Microfluidic chip technology makes it possible to study coral polyps at the single-cell level, but most chips can only be analyzed for a single environmental variable. In this work, we addressed these issues by designing a microfluidic coral polyp culture chip with a multi-physical field for multivariable analyses and verifying the feasibility of the chip through numerical simulation. This chip used multiple serpentine structures to generate the concentration gradient and used a circuit to form the Joule effect for the temperature gradient. It could generate different temperature gradients at different voltages for studying the growth of polyps in different solutes or at different temperatures. The simulation of flow field and temperature showed that the solute and heat could be transferred evenly and efficiently in the chambers, and that the temperature of the chamber remained unchanged after 24 h of continuous heating. The thermal expansion of the microfluidic chip was low at the optimal culture temperature of coral polyps, which proves the feasibility of the use of the multivariable microfluidic model for polyp culture and provides a theoretical basis for the actual chip processing.

Photobleaching-induced signal decay undermines the accuracy of fluorescence-based drug screening across multiple disease models (e.g., HER2/EGFR-targeted therapies). Traditional phototoxicity mitigation strategies, primarily through reduced illumination, inevitably compromise imaging resolution and further providing false positive/false negative. Here, we introduce an innovative active photobleaching intervention strategy to solve these problems with the potential for broad applicability across a wide range of cell species. We employ the ultra-low-frequency (500–2000 Hz) acoustic modulation to control 3D cellular rotation (precisely in x-y/y-z planes) with a linearly tunable rotational speed, establishing the first quantitative framework linking acoustic parameters to photobleaching kinetics. Our results indicate that acoustic frequency scanning exerts a bandpass-filter effect on photobleaching half-life, peaking at 1500 Hz and achieving approximately 30-fold fluorescence preservation compared to static conditions. By harnessing our newly developed Acousto-Optogenetics Bandpass Stabilizer, we transform phototoxicity into a tunable parameter, thereby enabling artifact-free drug response analysis. While maintaining maximal photostability, frequency-division multiplexing further permits real-time calcium flux monitoring during optogenetic activation. Complementing this, we engineer FlowMind, an AI-powered software, to automate single-cell dynamic library processing. As proof of concept, screening calcium channel blockers under optimal photostability conditions reveals significant variations in drug screening sensitivity. By integrating acoustic modulation with optogenetics, this paradigm not only pioneers the programmable control of photostability via acoustics, but also catalyzes a transformative shift in precision oncology, heralding a new era of patient-tailored therapeutic regimens with enhanced clinical predictability.