News items Lowlands Science 2025: Pink Coffee Club

18 August 2025

Last weekend, researchers from Radboudumc and Radboud University attended Lowlands Science with their project ‘Pink Coffee Club’. Using DNA swabs, they investigated how quickly or slowly people break down caffeine and how this affects their reaction speed. Curious to see what it looked like? Check out the impressions here!

This is what the Pink Coffee Club container looked like!

Frédérique van Berkestijn, member of the Executive Board, and Alexandra van Huffelen, chair of Radboud University, took a look around together. And during this visit, a cup of coffee was of course a must!

There was also a lot of media attention. In this photo, Hart van Nederland came to interview PhD candidate Noor Verhagen.

And Focus!

BNR Nieuwsradio also visited. They interviewed Margit Jansen, a researcher at Radboud University.

Meanwhile, researcher Suzanne Heemskerk refilled the coffee. Because the queue could sometimes be long, people could get started with coloring pages! Professor Jan Koenderink, Department of Pharmacology, can be seen there on a horse. Because Pink Coffee Club is derived from the song Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, the headliner at Lowlands this year.

During the study, a swab was first taken from the cheek mucosa. The DNA was then examined to determine how quickly or slowly a person breaks down caffeine. Various tests were then carried out to measure reaction speed. The photo on the left shows researcher Aniek Verstappen from Radboud University pipetting. The photo on the right shows the research station where the DNA was analyzed.

The entire Pink Coffee Club team!

Would you like to see more of the Pink Coffee Club? Watch a short video below:

 

 

Related news items