diff --git a/src/cellflow/preprocessing/_gene_emb.py b/src/cellflow/preprocessing/_gene_emb.py
index cbddb59f..b4aa95d4 100644
--- a/src/cellflow/preprocessing/_gene_emb.py
+++ b/src/cellflow/preprocessing/_gene_emb.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
     import torch
     from torch.utils.data import DataLoader
     from transformers import AutoTokenizer, EsmModel
-except ImportError as e:
+except (ImportError, ModuleNotFoundError) as e:
     torch = None
     DataLoader = None
     AutoTokenizer = None