# Differential gene expression - normalize gene values?

**URL:** <https://discourse.scverse.org/t/differential-gene-expression-normalize-gene-values/1944>\
**Category:** scanpy\
**Created:** [December 6, 2023, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.scverse.org/t/differential-gene-expression-normalize-gene-values/1944 "2023-12-06T09:47:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mmvicente](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@mmvicente](https://discourse.scverse.org/u/mmvicente)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.scverse.org/t/differential-gene-expression-normalize-gene-values/1944/1 "2023-12-06T09:47:10Z")

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Hi all,

I am running scanpy…tl.rank\_genes\_groups() to perform DGE between two cell clusters. My question is whether I should normalize the gene values per cell or can I run it with non-normalized values?

The two approached provide really different results, as one of the cell clusters shows overall higher transcription levels…

Thank you in advance!