diff --git a/app/novelty/gene_nmf/dcc/file_utils.py b/app/novelty/gene_nmf/dcc/file_utils.py
index d3b3488..ccaace9 100644
--- a/app/novelty/gene_nmf/dcc/file_utils.py
+++ b/app/novelty/gene_nmf/dcc/file_utils.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def read_tab_delimited_file(file_path, log=False):
     result = {}
 
     # read in the data
-    with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
+    with open(file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as file:
         for line in file:
             fields = line.strip().split('\t')
             stripped_list = [item.strip() for item in fields]