The invention concerns a method for spatially manipulating at least one particle in a fluid, wherein the particle or the particles is/are spatially manipulated in the fluid by hydrodynamic flows which are generated in the fluid by means of dynamic localized heating of the fluid. The method according to the invention is characterized in that at least one target spatial configuration of the particle(s) in the fluid is defined and that the following further steps are carried out: a) an actual spatial configuration of the particle(s) is captured, b) a specific dynamic localized heating event to be applied to the fluid is determined in dependence of at least one recent actual spatial configuration of the particle(s) and a target configuration of the particle(s), c) the specific dynamic localized heating as determined in step c) is applied at least once to the fluid and d) at least one or all of the steps a) to c) are repeated. The invention concerns furthermore an apparatus for spatially manipulating at least one particle in a fluid by means of hydrodynamic flows a computer program product and a computer-readable storage medium.