About The Neonatal Progeroid Foundation

Neonatal Progeroid Foundation was created to bring awareness to Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome (NPS), previously named Wiedemann Rautenstrauch Syndrome. Through recent research, we have learned that the syndrome occurs when there are two mutations on the PolR3A gene.

Neonatal progeroid syndrome is a rare genetic syndrome characterized by an aged appearance at birth. Other signs and symptoms include intrauterine growth restriction, feeding difficulties, distinctive craniofacial features, hypotonia, developmental delay, and mild to severe intellectual disability. Although the exact underlying cause of Neonatal progeroid syndrome is unknown, it is likely a genetic condition that is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner.

About Gabby Macari

Gabby Macari is a 6 year old girl living with Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome. Little is known about the syndrome and at the time of her birth there was only one short medical article. The part of the piece that stuck with us was the average life span of 6 months. It was a difficult 6 months, but after that 6 month’s birthday we realized that Gabby was different. She was strong, she was happy and she was, in her way, thriving. Not motivated by food, but letters and academics, Gabby was reading at the age of two. She is currently in first grade at Ellisville Elementary School and enjoys everyday getting on the bus and learning new things at school. She loves reading, dancing (ballet and tap) and pretending to be a doctor. While Gabby’s health today is fairly good, others with her syndrome aren’t so lucky and we felt a need to bring awareness to this rare aging syndrome.

About Leigh Nash

Nash was raised in the Texas Hill Country, where the radio stations played country music and the small towns rang with mariachi bands. A shy kid, she built up her confidence by learning how to sing. Nash began by impersonating the artists she heard on the FM dial — with particular emphasis on Tanya Tucker and Patsy Cline — before graduating to her own gigs at the age of 13, when she began singing with a country band during a series of weekly shows in New Braunfels. Within a few years, she’d also joined a band called Sixpence None the Richer, which ultimately introduced the pop world to her signature, sparkling vocal and led a successful run that included Top 5 hits like “Kiss Me” and “There She Goes.”

Kicking off her acclaimed solo career in 2006, Nash has spent the past decade exploring everything from folk to electronic music. The State I’m In marks a return to her days in the Lone Star State, though, with Nash whipping up a combination of Texas twang, Spanish influences, orchestral pop hooks and heartbroken lyrics. In classic country style, she sings about heartache and bad luck in a voice that swoons and sweeps, backed by a band whose members include Emmylou Harris and Wanda Jackson’s pianist, Jack White’s ace fiddle player and award-winning a cappella group Street Corner Symphony. If The State I’m In sounds like a country album, though, it’s a wide-ranging, left-of-center, Latin American-tinged country album, with songs that tip their hat to the past while still moving forward toward something new.