Hello,

I have a data in the form of a dataframe that I downloaded from [GTEx Portal][1]. It contains RNASeq gene read counts used in their study.

```
> dim(expr.df)
[1] 55993  2921
> expr.df[1:10,1:2]
                GTEX-N7MS-0007-SM-2D7W1 GTEX-N7MS-0008-SM-4E3JI
ENSG00000223972                       0                       0
ENSG00000227232                     158                     166
ENSG00000243485                       0                       0
ENSG00000237613                       0                       0
ENSG00000268020                       0                       0
ENSG00000240361                       0                       0
ENSG00000186092                       0                       0
ENSG00000238009                      17                       2
ENSG00000233750                      35                       0
ENSG00000237683                    8489                      34
```

I checked the sample information file and there is no information about the conditions. I want to normalize the raw counts. For that, I want to use DESeq's `getVarianceStabilizedData()` function. However this function takes as an input a `CountDataSet` object. So when I try to make a `CountDataSet` object using this:

```
> cds <- newCountDataSet(countData = as.matrix(expr.df))
Error in is(conditions, "matrix") : 
  argument "conditions" is missing, with no default
```

It spits out an error asking me to specify the conditions. However, there are no conditions in this dataset. How can I normalize these values?

 [1]: http://www.gtexportal.org/home/datasets
To save everyone's time, I tried this: 

    # specify just one condition
    cds <- newCountDataSet(countData=as.matrix(expr.df),condition=c(rep(1,2921))) 
    cds <- estimateSizeFactors(cds)
    # method ="blind" assumes replicates of a single condition
    cds <- estimateDispersions(cds, method="blind", fitType="local") 
    vst <- getVarianceStabilizedData(cds) # this worked fine

Let me know if my approach seems reasonable or incorrect. I did not want to delete the question just in case other people face the same problem.