diff --git a/biotransformers/version.py b/biotransformers/version.py
index c93eba1..84ee66d 100755
--- a/biotransformers/version.py
+++ b/biotransformers/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-VERSION = "0.1.16"
+VERSION = "0.1.17"
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index cd826c7..60e4254 100755
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ scikit-learn>=0.22.2
 torch>=1.7.0,<1.9
 torchmetrics>=0.3.2,<0.5
 tqdm>=4.60.0
-transformers>=4.6.1,<4.7
+transformers>=4.8,<4.9
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 34beb12..5daba03 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from setuptools import find_packages, setup
 
 HERE = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent
-README = (HERE / "README.md").read_text()
+README = (HERE / "README.md").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
 
 with open("biotransformers/version.py") as v:
     exec(v.readline())