diff --git a/server/requirements.txt b/server/requirements.txt
index 97c07954..561635e7 100644
--- a/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/server/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-anndata>=0.6.12
+anndata>=0.6.13
 click>=6.7
 Flask>=1.0.2
 Flask-Caching>=1.4.0
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 208a4a7a..d1691675 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
-    long_description = fh.read()
+with open("README.md", "rb") as fh:
+    long_description = fh.read().decode()
 
 with open("server/requirements.txt") as fh:
     requirements = fh.read().splitlines()