diff --git a/cellphonedb/utils/db_utils.py b/cellphonedb/utils/db_utils.py
index 06f48f2d..6a39724f 100644
--- a/cellphonedb/utils/db_utils.py
+++ b/cellphonedb/utils/db_utils.py
@@ -39,17 +39,18 @@ def get_protein_and_complex_data_for_web(cpdb_file_path) -> Tuple[dict, dict, di
     proteinTable = dbTableDFs['protein_table']
 
     for col in set(PROTEIN_INFO_FIELDS_FOR_WEB + COMPLEX_INFO_FIELDS_FOR_WEB):
-        mtTable.loc[mtTable[col] == True, col] = col.capitalize()
-        mtTable.loc[mtTable[col] == False, col] = np.nan
+        mtTable = mtTable.astype({col: 'str'})
+        mtTable.loc[mtTable[col] == "True", col] = col.capitalize()
+        mtTable.loc[mtTable[col] == "False", col] = np.nan
         if col in ['other_desc']:
             # Sanitize values for displaying to the user
             mtTable[col] = mtTable[col].str.replace("_", " ").str.capitalize()
 
-    mtp = mtTable[mtTable['is_complex'] == False]
+    mtp = mtTable[~mtTable['is_complex']]
     aux = pd.merge(mtp, proteinTable, left_on='id_multidata', right_on='protein_multidata_id')
     proteinAcc2Name = dict(zip(aux['name'], aux['protein_name']))
 
-    mtc = mtTable[mtTable['is_complex'] == True]
+    mtc = mtTable[mtTable['is_complex']]
 
     aux = dict(zip(mtp['name'], mtp[PROTEIN_INFO_FIELDS_FOR_WEB].values))
     protein2Info = {k: [x for x in aux[k] if str(x) != 'nan'] for k in aux}
@@ -377,7 +378,7 @@ def create_db(target_dir) -> None:
     for r in complex_db_df[protein_column_names + ['complex_multidata_id', 'total_protein']].values.tolist():
         for acc in filter(lambda x: isinstance(x, str), r):
             protein_multidata_id = \
-                multidata_db_df.loc[(multidata_db_df['is_complex'] == False) &
+                multidata_db_df.loc[(~multidata_db_df['is_complex']) &
                                     (multidata_db_df['name'] == acc), ['id_multidata']].iat[0, 0]
             complex_multidata_id = r[pos]
             total_protein = r[pos+1]
@@ -472,7 +473,7 @@ def get_dfs(gene_input=None, protein_input=None, complex_input=None, interaction
 def sanity_test_uniprot_accessions_map_to_multiple_gene_names(gene_db_df: pd.DataFrame):
     gene_names_uniprot_df = gene_db_df[['gene_name', 'uniprot']].copy()
     gene_names_uniprot_df.drop_duplicates(inplace=True)
-    dups = gene_names_uniprot_df[gene_names_uniprot_df['uniprot'].duplicated() == True]
+    dups = gene_names_uniprot_df[gene_names_uniprot_df['uniprot'].duplicated()]
     if not dups.empty:
         # data_errors_found = True
         print("WARNING: The following UniProt ids map to multiple gene names (it is expected that " +