diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index ae15029b..1f8dbba2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ jobs:
           - { python: "3.11", os: "ubuntu-latest", session: "tests" }
           - { python: "3.10", os: "ubuntu-latest", session: "tests" }
           - { python: "3.9", os: "ubuntu-latest", session: "tests" }
+          - { python: "3.8", os: "ubuntu-latest", session: "tests" }
 
           - { python: "3.11", os: "macos-latest", session: "tests" }
           - { python: "3.10", os: "macos-latest", session: "tests" }
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 46bb452a..74a5158d 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ classifiers = [
 keywords = ["bioinformatics", "sequence aligner", "blat"]
 
 [tool.poetry.dependencies]
-python = "^3.9, <3.12"
+python = "^3.8, <3.12"
 loguru = "^0.7.0"
 pybind11 = "^2.10.4"
 setuptools = "^68.2.2"