diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index bbbb1f5..ebf1bb9 100755
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: SpaceMarkers
 Title: Spatial Interaction Markers
-Version: 0.99.8
+Version: 1.11.1
 Authors@R: c(
     person(given = "Atul", family = "Deshpande", email = "adeshpande@jhu.edu", role = c("aut", "cre"), comment = c(ORCID="0000-0001-5144-6924")),
     person(given = "Ludmila", family = "Danilova", email = "ldanilo1@jhmi.edu", role = "ctb"),
@@ -54,5 +54,5 @@ Config/testthat/edition: 3
 Encoding: UTF-8
 LazyData: false
 Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
-RoxygenNote: 7.3.1
+RoxygenNote: 7.3.2
 License: MIT + file LICENSE
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 203edb6..0b798eb 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#generated from 69d000eee2de41886a5732a1436be4a98f080dcf
+#generated from 5e8ce2188e8157bfd86d5eb614499004cc4a5b65
 # --platform=linux/amd64 to avoid 'no match for platform in the manifest' on M1
 FROM rocker/tidyverse:4
 
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e48fcb9..fb3d7a9 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# SoaceMarkers development version
+
+* `getSpatialFeatures`: add default method to infer the object passed to it. 
+
 # SpaceMarkers 0.1.0
 
 * Added a `NEWS.md` file to track changes to the package.
diff --git a/R/preprocessing.R b/R/preprocessing.R
index e4e11ed..69c3923 100644
--- a/R/preprocessing.R
+++ b/R/preprocessing.R
@@ -141,12 +141,12 @@ load10XCoords <- function(visiumDir, resolution = "lowres", version = NULL){
 #'
 #' @param filePath A string path to the location of the file containing the 
 #' spatial features. 
-#' @param method A string specifying the method used to obtain spatial 
-#' features. e.g., "CoGAPS", "Seurat", or "BayesTME".
+#' @param method A string specifying the type of object to obtain spatial
+#' feature from. Default NULL, where the method is inferred based on object
+#' type. Other methods are: "CoGAPS", "Seurat", or "BayesTME".
 #' @param featureNames An array of strings specifying the column names 
-#' corresponding to the feature names. If input is NULL, in the case of CoGAPS 
-#' and BayesTME, all features are selected In the case of Seurat, all metadata 
-#' columns with "_Feature" suffix are selected.
+#' corresponding to the feature names or a regex string. In the case of Seurat,
+#' all metadata columns with "_Feature" suffix are selected.
 #' @return a matrix of spatial features with barcodes associated 
 #' with individual coordinates
 #' @examples
@@ -158,52 +158,108 @@ load10XCoords <- function(visiumDir, resolution = "lowres", version = NULL){
 #' head(spFeatures)
 #' 
 
-getSpatialFeatures <- function(filePath,method = "CoGAPS",featureNames = NULL){
-    if(method=="CoGAPS"){
-        spFeatures <- readRDS(filePath)
-        spFeatures <- slot(spFeatures,"sampleFactors")
-    } else if(method=="BayesTME"){
-        hf <- hdf5r::h5file(filename = filePath, mode='r')
-        spFeatures <- t(hdf5r::readDataSet(
-            hf[["obsm/bayestme_cell_type_counts"]]))
-        barcodes <- hdf5r::readDataSet(hf[["obs/_index"]])
-        rownames(spFeatures) <- barcodes
-        if (is.null(colnames(spFeatures)))
-            colnames(spFeatures)<-paste0("BayesTME_",seq(1,ncol(spFeatures)))
-    } else if(method=="Seurat"){
-        spFeatures <- readRDS(filePath)
-        spFeatures <- spFeatures[[]]
-    } else {stop("Method not supported.")}
-    if(is.null(featureNames)){
-        featureNames <- colnames(spFeatures)
-        message("No feature names provided. Using all available features.")
-        if(method=="Seurat") {
-            featureNames <- grepl(colnames(spFeatures),pattern = "_feature", 
-                                    ignore.case = TRUE)
-            message("Using all metadata columns with '_Feature' suffix.")
+getSpatialFeatures <- function(filePath, method = NULL, featureNames = "."){
+
+    #read the features object based on the format
+    spObject <- .readFormat(filePath)
+
+    #determine the method to use for feature extractioin
+    method <- .inferMethod(spObject, method)
+
+    spFun <- c("CoGAPS"=.getCogapsFeatures,
+               "BayesTME"=.getBTMEfeatures,
+               "Seurat"=.getSeuratFeatures)
+
+    spFeatures <- spFun[[method]](spObject)
+
+    dataNames <- colnames(spFeatures)
+
+    #subset the features based on the featureNames
+    if(length(featureNames) == 1) {
+        #assume regex is provided
+        namePattern <- featureNames
+        featureNames <- dataNames[grepl(pattern = namePattern,
+                                        dataNames, ignore.case = TRUE)]
+        if(length(featureNames) == 0) {
+           stop(sprintf("Regex %s does not match any feature.", namePattern))
         }
-    } else{
-        if (length(featureNames) == 1){
-            featureNames <- colnames(spFeatures)[grepl(pattern=featureNames,
-                                                        colnames(spFeatures),
-                                                        ignore.case = TRUE)]
-            message("Only one featureName provided.
-                    Assuming input is regular expression.")
-            if (length(featureNames) == 0)
-                stop("No features found with matching regular expression.
-                        Please check your input.")
-            else
-                message("Found ",length(featureNames),
-                        " features matching the regular expression.")
+    } else if(!all(featureNames %in% dataNames)) {
+    stop("Some of the features were not found:",
+         sprintf(" %s", setdiff(featureNames, dataNames)))
+    }
+
+    featureNames <- intersect(featureNames, dataNames)
+    spFeatures <- spFeatures[,featureNames, drop = FALSE]
+
+    return(spFeatures)
+}
+
+#' readFormat
+#' Reads a format into an R object
+#' @keywords internal
+#' 
+.readFormat <- function(path){
+    if(grepl(".rds",path)){
+        obj <- readRDS(path)
+    } else if (grepl(".h5ad",path)){
+        obj <- hdf5r::h5file(filename = path, mode='r')
+    } else {
+        stop("File format not supported.")
+    }
+    return(obj)
+}
+
+#' inferMethod
+#' Infer the method used to obtain spatial features
+#' @keywords internal
+.inferMethod <- function(spObject, method){
+    if(is.null(method)){
+        if(inherits(spObject, "H5File")){
+            method <- "BayesTME"
+        } else if(inherits(spObject, "CogapsResult")){
+            method <- "CoGAPS"
         }
-        else
-            featureNames <- intersect(featureNames,colnames(spFeatures))
-        if(!is.null(featureNames))
-            spFeatures <- spFeatures[,featureNames]
-        else
-            stop("No features found in the spatial
-                    data with provided feature names.")
     }
-    spFeatures <- spFeatures[,featureNames]
+    return(method)
+}
+
+#' .getCogapsFeatures
+#' Load features CoGAPS object
+#' @keywords internal
+#' 
+.getCogapsFeatures <- function(obj){
+    spFeatures <- slot(obj, "sampleFactors")
     return(spFeatures)
 }
+
+#' .getBTMEfeatures
+#' Load features BayesTME object
+#' 
+#' @keywords internal
+#' 
+.getBTMEfeatures <- function(hf){
+    feat_loc <- "obsm/bayestme_cell_type_counts"
+    barc_loc <- "obs/_index"
+    spFeatures <- t(hdf5r::readDataSet(hf[[feat_loc]]))
+    barcodes <- hdf5r::readDataSet(hf[[barc_loc]])
+    rownames(spFeatures) <- barcodes
+    if (is.null(colnames(spFeatures))) {
+        colnames(spFeatures)<-paste0("BayesTME_",seq(1,ncol(spFeatures)))
+    }
+
+    return(spFeatures)
+}
+
+#' .getSeuratFeatures
+#' Load features Seurat object
+#' @keywords internal
+#' 
+.getSeuratFeatures <- function(obj){
+    spFeatures <- slot(obj, "meta.data")
+    selection <- grepl("_Feature",colnames(spFeatures), ignore.case = TRUE)
+    if (!any(selection)){
+        stop("No _feature columns found in Seurat object.")
+    }
+    spFeatures <- spFeatures[,selection, drop = FALSE]
+    return(spFeatures)
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/cogaps_result.rda b/data/cogaps_result.rda
deleted file mode 100644
index 1c8054d..0000000
Binary files a/data/cogaps_result.rda and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/man/cogaps_result.Rd b/man/cogaps_result.Rd
deleted file mode 100644
index 3a64709..0000000
--- a/man/cogaps_result.Rd
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
-% Please edit documentation in R/data.R
-\name{cogaps_result}
-\alias{cogaps_result}
-\title{Latent Feature Space for each pattern}
-\format{
-CogapsResult object with 24228 features and 6 samples:
-\describe{
-\item{featureLoadings}{Data frame of Gene for each pattern}
-\item{sampleFactors}{Data frame of cell barcodes and the 5 patterns}
-}
-}
-\value{
-A matrix of statistics for each pattern across each barcode
-}
-\description{
-A CoGAPS object where the major requirements for SpaceMarkers are the
-matrices of genes, barcodes and patterns learned of the latent-feature space
-}
diff --git a/man/dot-getBTMEfeatures.Rd b/man/dot-getBTMEfeatures.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..197c370
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dot-getBTMEfeatures.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/preprocessing.R
+\name{.getBTMEfeatures}
+\alias{.getBTMEfeatures}
+\title{.getBTMEfeatures
+Load features BayesTME object}
+\usage{
+.getBTMEfeatures(hf)
+}
+\description{
+.getBTMEfeatures
+Load features BayesTME object
+}
+\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/man/dot-getCogapsFeatures.Rd b/man/dot-getCogapsFeatures.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23652c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dot-getCogapsFeatures.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/preprocessing.R
+\name{.getCogapsFeatures}
+\alias{.getCogapsFeatures}
+\title{.getCogapsFeatures
+Load features CoGAPS object}
+\usage{
+.getCogapsFeatures(obj)
+}
+\description{
+.getCogapsFeatures
+Load features CoGAPS object
+}
+\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/man/dot-getSeuratFeatures.Rd b/man/dot-getSeuratFeatures.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29b60ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dot-getSeuratFeatures.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/preprocessing.R
+\name{.getSeuratFeatures}
+\alias{.getSeuratFeatures}
+\title{.getSeuratFeatures
+Load features Seurat object}
+\usage{
+.getSeuratFeatures(obj)
+}
+\description{
+.getSeuratFeatures
+Load features Seurat object
+}
+\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/man/dot-inferMethod.Rd b/man/dot-inferMethod.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc28210
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dot-inferMethod.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/preprocessing.R
+\name{.inferMethod}
+\alias{.inferMethod}
+\title{inferMethod
+Infer the method used to obtain spatial features}
+\usage{
+.inferMethod(spObject, method)
+}
+\description{
+inferMethod
+Infer the method used to obtain spatial features
+}
+\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/man/dot-readFormat.Rd b/man/dot-readFormat.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2789f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dot-readFormat.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/preprocessing.R
+\name{.readFormat}
+\alias{.readFormat}
+\title{readFormat
+Reads a format into an R object}
+\usage{
+.readFormat(path)
+}
+\description{
+readFormat
+Reads a format into an R object
+}
+\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/man/getSpatialFeatures.Rd b/man/getSpatialFeatures.Rd
index ff49895..c859e22 100644
--- a/man/getSpatialFeatures.Rd
+++ b/man/getSpatialFeatures.Rd
@@ -5,19 +5,19 @@
 \title{getSpatialFeatures
 Load spatial features}
 \usage{
-getSpatialFeatures(filePath, method = "CoGAPS", featureNames = NULL)
+getSpatialFeatures(filePath, method = NULL, featureNames = ".")
 }
 \arguments{
 \item{filePath}{A string path to the location of the file containing the
 spatial features.}
 
-\item{method}{A string specifying the method used to obtain spatial
-features. e.g., "CoGAPS", "Seurat", or "BayesTME".}
+\item{method}{A string specifying the type of object to obtain spatial
+feature from. Default NULL, where the method is inferred based on object
+type. Other methods are: "CoGAPS", "Seurat", or "BayesTME".}
 
 \item{featureNames}{An array of strings specifying the column names
-corresponding to the feature names. If input is NULL, in the case of CoGAPS
-and BayesTME, all features are selected In the case of Seurat, all metadata
-columns with "_Feature" suffix are selected.}
+corresponding to the feature names or a regex string. In the case of Seurat,
+all metadata columns with "_Feature" suffix are selected.}
 }
 \value{
 a matrix of spatial features with barcodes associated
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/btme.h5ad b/tests/testthat/assets/btme.h5ad
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab8ffdb
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/testthat/assets/btme.h5ad differ
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/cogaps.rds b/tests/testthat/assets/cogaps.rds
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..658e767
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/testthat/assets/cogaps.rds differ
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/create_btme.py b/tests/testthat/assets/create_btme.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb03f5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/assets/create_btme.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+from bayestme import data, synthetic_data
+stdata = synthetic_data.generate_demo_dataset()
+
+from bayestme import deconvolution
+from bayestme.common import InferenceType
+best_spatial_smoothing_parameter = 1000.0
+best_n_components = 3
+
+deconvolution_result = deconvolution.sample_from_posterior(
+    data=stdata,
+    n_components=best_n_components,
+    spatial_smoothing_parameter=best_spatial_smoothing_parameter,
+    n_samples=100,
+    n_svi_steps=10_000,
+    expression_truth=None,
+    use_spatial_guide=True)
+
+data.add_deconvolution_results_to_dataset(
+    stdata, deconvolution_result
+)
+
+stdata.save('btme.h5ad')
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/testthat/assets/create_cogaps.R b/tests/testthat/assets/create_cogaps.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e506b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/assets/create_cogaps.R
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+library(CoGAPS)
+data(GIST)
+cg <- CoGAPS(GIST.data_frame, nPatterns = 3 , nIterations = 100)
+saveRDS(cg, "cogaps.rds")
+
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-preprocessing.getSpatialFeatures.R b/tests/testthat/test-preprocessing.getSpatialFeatures.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7dd2379
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-preprocessing.getSpatialFeatures.R
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#reading input files and extracting features
+
+test_that(".readFormat can read cogaps and btme files", {
+    expect_no_error(.readFormat("assets/cogaps.rds"))
+    expect_no_error(.readFormat("assets/btme.h5ad"))
+})
+
+test_that(".getCogapsFeatures can read features from a CoGAPS object",{
+    cg <- .readFormat("assets/cogaps.rds")
+    sf <- .getCogapsFeatures(cg)
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 3)
+})
+
+test_that(".getBTMEfeatures can read features from Anndata object",{
+    bt <- .readFormat("assets/btme.h5ad")
+    sf <- .getBTMEfeatures(bt)
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 3)
+})
+
+test_that(".inferMethod can infer the method used to obtain spatial features", {
+    expect_equal(.inferMethod(.readFormat("assets/cogaps.rds"), NULL), "CoGAPS")
+    expect_equal(.inferMethod(.readFormat("assets/btme.h5ad"), NULL), "BayesTME")
+})
+
+#main function tests
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures fails with unsupported method",{
+    expect_error(getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "unsupported"))
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures fails with no matching feature names",{
+    expect_error(getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "CoGAPS", featureNames = "no_match"),
+                 "Regex no_match does not match any feature.")
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures work with custom regex", {
+    sf <- getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "CoGAPS", featureNames = "_1")
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 1)
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures works with a feature name set", {
+    sf <- getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "CoGAPS", featureNames = c("Pattern_1", "Pattern_2"))
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 2)
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures warns if some of the features are not found", {
+    expect_error(getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "CoGAPS", 
+                                    featureNames = c("Pattern_1", "Pattern_2", "Pattern_4")),
+                                    "Some of the features were not found: Pattern_4")
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures warns if some of the features are not found", {
+    expect_error(getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds", method = "CoGAPS",
+                                    featureNames = c("Pattern_1", "Pattern_2", "Pattern_3", "qq", "ww")),
+                                    "Some of the features were not found: qq ww")
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures works in infer mode with Cogaps object", {
+    sf <- getSpatialFeatures("assets/cogaps.rds")
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 3)
+})
+
+test_that("getSpatialFeatures works in infer mode with Cogaps object", {
+    sf <- getSpatialFeatures("assets/btme.h5ad")
+    expect_equal(ncol(sf), 3)
+})
\ No newline at end of file