diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 097a80e..4fb31ff 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "scikit-learn",
     "tifffile",
     "torch_geometric",
+    "json",
 ]
 
 [build-system]
diff --git a/src/segger/io/fields.py b/src/segger/io/fields.py
index 40bd6be..8dc30a9 100644
--- a/src/segger/io/fields.py
+++ b/src/segger/io/fields.py
@@ -23,6 +23,26 @@ class XeniumTranscriptFields:
         'UnassignedCodeword_*',
     ]
 
+@dataclass
+class XeniumTranscriptFieldsV1:
+    filename: str = 'transcripts.parquet'
+    x: str = 'x_location'
+    y: str = 'y_location'
+    feature: str = 'feature_name'
+    cell_id: str = 'cell_id'
+    null_cell_id: str = "-1"
+    compartment: str = 'overlaps_nucleus'
+    nucleus_value: int = 1
+    quality: str = 'qv'
+    filter_substrings = [
+        'NegControlProbe_*',
+        'antisense_*',
+        'NegControlCodeword*',
+        'BLANK_*',
+        'DeprecatedCodeword_*',
+        'UnassignedCodeword_*',
+    ]
+
 @dataclass
 class XeniumBoundaryFields:
     cell_filename: str = 'cell_boundaries.parquet'
diff --git a/src/segger/io/preprocessor.py b/src/segger/io/preprocessor.py
index 597a818..8320230 100644
--- a/src/segger/io/preprocessor.py
+++ b/src/segger/io/preprocessor.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import geopandas as gpd
 import polars as pl
 import pandas as pd
+import json
 import warnings
 import logging
 import sys
@@ -21,7 +22,8 @@
     MerscopeBoundaryFields,
     StandardTranscriptFields,
     StandardBoundaryFields,
-    XeniumTranscriptFields, 
+    XeniumTranscriptFields,
+    XeniumTranscriptFieldsV1,
     XeniumBoundaryFields,
     CosMxTranscriptFields,
     CosMxBoundaryFields,
@@ -372,16 +374,48 @@ class XeniumPreprocessor(ISTPreprocessor):
     """
     Preprocessor for 10x Genomics Xenium datasets.
     """
+
+    tx_fields = XeniumTranscriptFields()
+    bd_fields = XeniumBoundaryFields()
+    sw_version = lambda version: version[0] > 1
+
     @staticmethod
-    def _validate_directory(data_dir: Path):
+    def _get_analysis_sw_version(data_dir: Path) -> str:
+        """
+        Get 10x xenium analysis software version. Example experiment.xenium file:
+        {
+            ...,
+            "analysis_sw_version": "xenium-3.3.1.1"
+        }
+        Return:
+            version : list of ints representing major, minor, and patch version numbers (e.g. [3, 3, 1, 1])
+        """
 
+        # get version
+        path_meta = data_dir / "experiment.xenium"
+        with open(path_meta) as f:
+            meta = json.load(f)
+        # version can be xenium-x.y.z or Xenium-x.y.z, ...
+        version = meta["analysis_sw_version"].split("-")[-1].split(".")
+        version = [int(v) for v in version]
+        return version
+
+    @classmethod
+    def _validate_directory(cls, data_dir: Path):
+
+        # Apply xenium software version 2 or higher (when cell id "Unassigned" was introduced. Previously -1)
+        version = XeniumPreprocessor._get_analysis_sw_version(data_dir)
+        if not cls.sw_version(version):
+            raise IOError(
+                f"Xenium analysis software version must be 2.0.0 or higher, "
+                f"but found version {'.'.join(version)}."
+            )
+        
         # Check required files/directories
-        bd_fields = XeniumBoundaryFields()
-        tx_fields = XeniumTranscriptFields()
         for pat in [
-            tx_fields.filename,
-            bd_fields.cell_filename,
-            bd_fields.nucleus_filename,
+            cls.tx_fields.filename,
+            cls.bd_fields.cell_filename,
+            cls.bd_fields.nucleus_filename,
         ]:
             num_matches = len(list(data_dir.glob(pat)))
             if not num_matches == 1:
@@ -394,7 +428,7 @@ def _validate_directory(data_dir: Path):
     def transcripts(self) -> pl.DataFrame:
 
         # Field names
-        raw = XeniumTranscriptFields()
+        raw = self.tx_fields
         std = StandardTranscriptFields()
 
         return (
@@ -405,6 +439,11 @@ def transcripts(self) -> pl.DataFrame:
             )
             # Add numeric index at beginning
             .with_row_index(name=std.row_index)
+            # Cast binary columns to string (Some Xenium parquet stores these as binary)
+            .with_columns(
+                pl.col(raw.feature).cast(pl.Utf8),
+                pl.col(raw.cell_id).cast(pl.Utf8),
+            )
             # Filter data
             .filter(pl.col(raw.quality) >= 20)
             .filter(pl.col(raw.feature).str.contains(
@@ -437,15 +476,16 @@ def transcripts(self) -> pl.DataFrame:
             .collect()
         )
 
-    @staticmethod
+    @classmethod
     def _get_boundaries(
+        cls,
         filepath: Path,
         boundary_type: str
     ) -> gpd.GeoDataFrame:
         # TODO: Add documentation
 
         # Field names
-        raw = XeniumBoundaryFields()
+        raw = cls.bd_fields
         std = StandardBoundaryFields()
 
         # Read in flat vertices and convert to geometries
@@ -463,7 +503,7 @@ def _get_boundaries(
     @cached_property
     def boundaries(self) -> gpd.GeoDataFrame:
         # TODO: Add documentation
-        raw = XeniumBoundaryFields()
+        raw = self.bd_fields
         std = StandardBoundaryFields()
 
         # Join boundary datasets
@@ -496,14 +536,24 @@ def boundaries(self) -> gpd.GeoDataFrame:
             cells.reset_index(drop=False, names=std.id), 
             nuclei.reset_index(drop=False, names=std.id),
         ])
-        # Convert index to string type (to join on AnnData)
-        bd.index = bd[std.id] + '_' + bd[std.boundary_type].map({
+        # cell_id is string in later 10x versions, but int in earlier versions.
+        bd.index = bd[std.id].astype(str) + '_' + bd[std.boundary_type].map({
             std.nucleus_value: '0',
             std.cell_value: '1',
         })
 
         return bd
 
+@register_preprocessor("10x_xenium_v1")
+class XeniumPreprocessorV1(XeniumPreprocessor):
+    """
+    Preprocessor for 10x Genomics Xenium datasets analyzed with software version 1.x.
+    """
+
+    tx_fields = XeniumTranscriptFieldsV1()
+    bd_fields = XeniumBoundaryFields()
+    sw_version = lambda version: version[0] == 1
+
 
 @register_preprocessor("vizgen_merscope")
 class MerscopePreprocessor(ISTPreprocessor):