diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 850bed71..0f3b2f55 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -58,23 +58,25 @@ RUN base_url=http://archive.materialscloud.org/file/2018.0001/v1;  \
     chown -R root:root /opt/pseudos/;                                          \
     chmod -R +r /opt/pseudos/
 
-## install rclone
+# install rclone
 WORKDIR /opt/rclone
 RUN wget https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-v1.38-linux-amd64.zip;  \
     unzip rclone-v1.38-linux-amd64.zip;                              \
     ln -s rclone-v1.38-linux-amd64/rclone .
 
-
-## install PyPI packages for Pyhon 3
+# install PyPI packages for Python 3
 RUN pip3 install --upgrade         \
     'tornado==4.5.3'               \
-    'jupyterhub==0.8.0'            \
-    'notebook==5.1.0'
+    'jupyterhub==0.8.1'            \
+    'notebook==5.5.0'              \
+    'appmode==0.3.0'
+
+# install PyPI packages for Python 2.
+# This already enables jupyter notebook and server extensions
+RUN pip2 install --process-dependency-links git+https://github.com/materialscloud-org/aiidalab-metapkg@v18.06.0rc3
 
-## install PyPI packages for Pyhon 2.
-## Using pip freeze to keep user visible software stack stable.
-COPY requirements.txt /opt/
-RUN pip2 install -r /opt/requirements.txt
+# the fileupload extension also needs to be "installed"
+RUN jupyter nbextension install --sys-prefix --py fileupload
 
 ## Get latest bugfixes from aiida-core
 ## TODO: Remove this after aiida-core 0.11.2 is released
@@ -85,30 +87,10 @@ RUN pip2 install -r /opt/requirements.txt
 #     pip install --no-deps . && \
 #    cd ..
 
-
-# active ipython kernels
+# activate ipython kernels
 RUN python2 -m ipykernel install
 RUN python3 -m ipykernel install
 
-
-# enable Jupyter extensions
-RUN jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py widgetsnbextension && \
-    jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py pythreejs          && \
-    jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py nglview            && \
-    jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py bqplot             && \
-    jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py ipympl             && \
-    jupyter nbextension install --sys-prefix --py fileupload         && \
-    jupyter nbextension enable  --sys-prefix --py fileupload
-
-
-# install Jupyter Appmode
-# server runs python3, notebook runs python2 - need both
-RUN pip2 install appmode==0.3.0                                          && \
-    pip3 install appmode==0.3.0                                          && \
-    jupyter nbextension     enable  --sys-prefix --py appmode            && \
-    jupyter serverextension enable  --sys-prefix --py appmode
-
-
 # install MolPad
 WORKDIR /opt
 RUN git clone https://github.com/oschuett/molview-ipywidget.git  && \
@@ -120,8 +102,7 @@ RUN git clone https://github.com/oschuett/molview-ipywidget.git  && \
 # create symlink for legacy workflows
 RUN cd /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/aiida/workflows; rm -rf user; ln -s /project/workflows user
 
-# populate reentry cache
-# https://pypi.python.org/pypi/reentry/
+# populate reentry cache for root user https://pypi.python.org/pypi/reentry/
 RUN reentry scan
 
 # disable MPI warnings that confuse ASE
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 096bfee0..00000000
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,156 +0,0 @@
-# python2 packages for user environment
-# required packages ============================================================
-#
-# ipython==5.5.0  # IPython 6 requires Python 3.3 or later
-# notebook
-# aiida
-# aiida-cp2k
-# aiida-quantumespresso
-# ase
-# seekpath
-# ipywidgets
-# fileupload
-# bokeh
-# pythreejs
-# nglview
-# bqplot
-# matplotlib
-# ipympl
-# numpy
-# pandas
-# scipy
-# requests
-# lxml
-# Markdown
-#
-# freeze versions ==============================================================
-aiida==0.12.0
-aiida-ase==1.0.1
-aiida-codtools==1.0.1
-aiida-core[rest,atomic_tools]==0.12.0
-aiida-cp2k==0.9
-aiida-nwchem==1.0.1
-aiida-raspa==0.2.1
-aiida-zeopp==0.1.0
-aiida-quantumespresso==2.0.1
-aiida-vasp==0.2.2
-aldjemy==0.6.0
-alembic==0.9.6
-amqp==1.4.9
-anyjson==0.3.3
-ase==3.15.0
-asn1crypto==0.24.0
-backports-abc==0.5
-backports.functools-lru-cache==1.5
-backports.shutil-get-terminal-size==1.0.0
-billiard==3.3.0.23
-bleach==2.1.1
-bokeh==0.12.15
-bqplot==0.10.1
-celery==3.1.25
-certifi==2018.1.18
-cffi==1.11.4
-chardet==3.0.4
-click==6.7
-click-plugins
-click-spinner
-configparser==3.5.0
-cryptography==2.1.4
-cycler==0.10.0
-decorator==4.2.1
-Django==1.7.11
-django-extensions==1.5.0
-ecdsa==0.13
-entrypoints==0.2.3
-enum34==1.1.6
-ete3==3.0.0b35
-fileupload==0.1.5
-Flask==0.12.2
-frozendict==1.2
-functools32==3.2.3.post2
-future==0.16.0
-futures==3.2.0
-html5lib==1.0b10
-idna==2.6
-ipaddress==1.0.19
-ipykernel==4.8.2
-ipympl==0.1.0
-ipython<6.0
-ipython-genutils==0.2.0
-ipywidgets==7.0.5
-itsdangerous==0.24
-Jinja2==2.10
-jsonschema==2.6.0
-jupyter-client==5.2.2
-jupyter-core==4.4.0
-kombu==3.0.37
-lxml==4.1.1
-Mako==1.0.7
-Markdown==2.6.9
-MarkupSafe==1.0
-matplotlib==2.1.0
-meld3==1.0.0
-mistune==0.8.1
-nbconvert==5.3.1
-nbformat==4.4.0
-nglview==1.0
-notebook==5.2.1
-numpy==1.13.3
-pandas==0.22.0
-pandocfilters==1.4.2
-paramiko==2.4.0
-passlib==1.7.1
-pathlib2==2.3.0
-pexpect==4.3.0
-pickleshare==0.7.4
-plumpy==0.7.12
-portalocker==1.1.0
-prompt-toolkit==1.0.15
-psutil==5.4.0
-psycopg2-binary==2.7.4
-ptyprocess==0.5.2
-pyasn1==0.4.2
-pycifrw==4.4
-pycparser==2.18
-pycrypto==2.6.1
-Pygments==2.2.0
-pymysql==0.8.0
-pyparsing==2.2.0
-python-dateutil==2.6.1
-python-editor==1.0.3
-python-mimeparse==0.1.4
-pythreejs==0.4.1
-pytz==2017.3
-PyYAML==3.12
-pyzmq==16.0.3
-reentry==1.2.1a2
-requests==2.18.4
-scandir==1.6
-scipy==1.0.0
-seekpath==1.8.0
-simplegeneric==0.8.1
-singledispatch==3.4.0.3
-six==1.11.0
-spglib==1.10.1.4
-SQLAlchemy==1.0.19
-SQLAlchemy-Utils==0.33.0
-subprocess32==3.2.7
-supervisor==3.1.3
-tabulate==0.7.5
-terminado==0.7
-testpath==0.3.1
-tornado==4.5.3
-traitlets==4.3.2
-traittypes==0.0.6
-tzlocal==1.3
-ujson==1.35
-uritools==1.0.2
-urllib3==1.22
-validate-email==1.3
-voluptuous==0.8.11
-wcwidth==0.1.7
-webencodings==0.5.1
-Werkzeug==0.14.1
-widgetsnbextension==3.0.8
-
-#EOF
diff --git a/start-singleuser.sh b/start-singleuser.sh
index 221fb8fc..f3888da4 100755
--- a/start-singleuser.sh
+++ b/start-singleuser.sh
@@ -105,7 +105,6 @@ fi
 # update the list of installed plugins
 grep "reentry scan" /project/.bashrc || echo "reentry scan" >> /project/.bashrc
 
-
 #===============================================================================
 # generate ssh key
 if [ ! -e /project/.ssh/id_rsa ]; then