diff --git a/preprocessing/sequence_utils.py b/preprocessing/sequence_utils.py
index 97b38f0..f567ca8 100644
--- a/preprocessing/sequence_utils.py
+++ b/preprocessing/sequence_utils.py
@@ -50,9 +50,7 @@ def num2seq(num):
         return [''.join([aa[min(x, len(aa) - 1)] for x in num_seq]) for num_seq in num]
 
 
-def load_FASTA(filename, with_labels=False, remove_insertions=True, drop_duplicates=True):
-    remove_insertions = True
-    with_labels = True
+def load_FASTA(filename, with_labels=True, numerical=True,remove_insertions=True, drop_duplicates=True):
     count = 0
     current_seq = ''
     all_seqs = []
@@ -74,9 +72,11 @@ def load_FASTA(filename, with_labels=False, remove_insertions=True, drop_duplica
                     [x for x in current_seq if not (x.islower() | (x == '.'))])
 
         all_seqs.append(current_seq)
-        all_seqs = np.array(list(
-            map(lambda x: [aadict[y] for y in x], all_seqs[1:])), dtype=curr_int, order="c")
-
+        if numerical:
+            all_seqs = np.array(list(
+                map(lambda x: [aadict[y] for y in x], all_seqs[1:])), dtype=curr_int, order="c")
+        else:
+            all_seqs = np.array(all_seqs[1:])
     if drop_duplicates:
         all_seqs = pd.DataFrame(all_seqs).drop_duplicates()
         if with_labels: