Testing the comparative power of these four biomarkers over the same cells revealed that PAX7 target gene repression (AUC = 0.651) was significantly better at distinguishing FSHD cells from healthy cells (DeLong’s test of P < 2.2 × 10−16) than each of the three DUX4 target gene expression biomarkers (Fig. 3E). Here, PAX7 is linked to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.