diff --git a/Dockerfile.backend b/Dockerfile.backend
index 1563bf75e66c8..22596d9642eef 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.backend
+++ b/Dockerfile.backend
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ RUN python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
 # TODO: Determine if cmake is really needed for ddtrace
 # see ticket: https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/single-cell-data-portal/issues/5821
 RUN python3 -m pip install cmake
-RUN python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
+RUN python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt -r ./common/server/requirements.txt
 RUN if [ "$INSTALL_DEV" = "true" ]; then python3 -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt; fi
 # Install awscli to download wmg snapshot to the local disk
 RUN python3 -m pip install awscli
diff --git a/backend/api_server/index.html b/backend/api_server/index.html
index 148b2d3d43c72..b9a9a13eb505b 100644
--- a/backend/api_server/index.html
+++ b/backend/api_server/index.html
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
     />
     <link
       rel="stylesheet"
-      href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/swagger-ui/3.0.13/swagger-ui.css"
-      integrity="sha256-Z7Z2kffooC4H3U4Myviypq5dO2IIGkmu7VRtd1YqNn8="
+      href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/swagger-ui/5.17.14/swagger-ui.css"
+      integrity="sha512-MvYROlKG3cDBPskMQgPmkNgZh85LIf68y7SZ34TIppaIHQz1M/3S/yYqzIfufdKDJjzB9Qu1BV63SZjimJkPvw=="
       crossorigin="anonymous"
     />
     <style>
diff --git a/backend/common/auth0_manager.py b/backend/common/auth0_manager.py
index cf85e59954879..1814b71dcc997 100644
--- a/backend/common/auth0_manager.py
+++ b/backend/common/auth0_manager.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ def session(self):
                 total=3,
                 backoff_factor=1,
                 status_forcelist=self.config.retry_status_forcelist,
-                method_whitelist=["POST", "HEAD", "GET", "PUT", "DELETE", "OPTIONS"],
+                allowed_methods=["POST", "HEAD", "GET", "PUT", "DELETE", "OPTIONS"],
             )
             session.mount("https://", HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry_config))
 
diff --git a/backend/common/census_cube/utils.py b/backend/common/census_cube/utils.py
index 2c85da6a72b4e..759b1bbea1d9a 100644
--- a/backend/common/census_cube/utils.py
+++ b/backend/common/census_cube/utils.py
@@ -96,17 +96,17 @@ def depluralize(x):
     return x[:-1] if x[-1] == "s" else x
 
 
-def setup_retry_session(retries=3, backoff_factor=2, status_forcelist=(500, 502, 503, 504), method_whitelist=None):
+def setup_retry_session(retries=3, backoff_factor=2, status_forcelist=(500, 502, 503, 504), allowed_methods=None):
     session = requests.Session()
 
-    if method_whitelist is None:
-        method_whitelist = {"GET"}
+    if allowed_methods is None:
+        allowed_methods = {"GET"}
 
     retry = Retry(
         total=retries,
         backoff_factor=backoff_factor,
         status_forcelist=status_forcelist,
-        allowed_methods=method_whitelist,
+        allowed_methods=allowed_methods,
     )
 
     adapter = HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry)
diff --git a/backend/common/corpora_config.py b/backend/common/corpora_config.py
index 6e1196eaab94e..d4dffbb862615 100644
--- a/backend/common/corpora_config.py
+++ b/backend/common/corpora_config.py
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ def get_defaults_template(self):
             "internal_url": "{api_base_url}",
             "issuer": [],
             "retry_status_forcelist": [429, 500, 502, 503, 504],
+            "server_metadata_url": "{api_base_url}/.well-known/openid-configuration",
         }
         template["issuer"].append(self.api_base_url + "/" if not self.api_base_url.endswith("/") else self.api_base_url)
         template["issuer"].append("https://" + self.auth0_domain + "/")
diff --git a/backend/common/server/config.py b/backend/common/server/config.py
index 0306c658eb9e9..a494c34f66d23 100644
--- a/backend/common/server/config.py
+++ b/backend/common/server/config.py
@@ -51,9 +51,10 @@ def configure_flask_app(flask_app):
         SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=require_secure_cookies,
         SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY=True,
         SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE="Lax",
-        JSON_SORT_KEYS=True,
     )
     flask_app.json_encoder = CustomJSONEncoder
+    flask_app.json.sort_keys = True
+
     return flask_app
 
 
@@ -141,7 +142,8 @@ def create_api_app(api_paths_and_spec_files, **server_args):
     based on the deployment stage.
 
     Args:
-        api_paths_and_spec_files (list of tuples): A list where each tuple contains a base path and a specification file.
+        api_paths_and_spec_files (list of tuples): A list where each tuple contains a base path and a specification
+        file.
         **server_args: Additional arguments to be passed to the FlaskApp.
 
     Returns:
diff --git a/python_dependencies/backend/common/server/requirements.txt b/python_dependencies/backend/common/server/requirements.txt
index b5465d1f437b7..f3e2362d1f09e 100644
--- a/python_dependencies/backend/common/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/python_dependencies/backend/common/server/requirements.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 connexion[swagger-ui]~=2.14.2
 gunicorn[gevent]~=22.0.0
 furl~=2.1.2
-Flask-Cors~=3.0.6
+Flask-Cors~=4.0.1
 flask-server-timing~=0.1.2
-ddtrace~=2.8.5
+ddtrace~=2.9.2
 python-json-logger
-boto3~=1.34.114
\ No newline at end of file
+boto3~=1.34.114
diff --git a/python_dependencies/backend/requirements.txt b/python_dependencies/backend/requirements.txt
index ca313b3780a24..147196caae9a3 100644
--- a/python_dependencies/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/python_dependencies/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -2,23 +2,16 @@ alembic==1.*
 Authlib==0.14.3
 boto3>=1.11.17
 botocore>=1.14.17
-connexion[swagger-ui]==2.14.2
-dataclasses-json==0.6.6
+dataclasses-json==0.6.7
 cellxgene-ontology-guide<2
 # TODO: Check if this is really essential for APM tracing
 # see ticket: https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/single-cell-data-portal/issues/5821
 datadog==0.49.1
-ddtrace>=2.1.4, <3
-Flask>=2.2.3, <3
-Flask-Cors>=3.0.6
-flask-server-timing>=0.1.2
-gunicorn[gevent]==22.0.0
-matplotlib>=3.6.3, <3.7 # 3.7.0 isn't compatible with scanpy: https://github.com/scverse/scanpy/issues/2411
-psutil>=5.9.5, <6
+Flask # verison determined by connexion
+psutil>=6, <7
 psycopg2-binary==2.*
 pydantic>=1.10.7, <2
 python-jose[cryptography]>=3.1.0
-python-json-logger
 requests>=2.22.0
 rsa>=4.7 # not directly required, pinned by Snyk to avoid a vulnerability
 setproctitle>1.3,<2 # for gunicorn integration with datadog
@@ -26,4 +19,3 @@ SQLAlchemy-Utils
 SQLAlchemy==2.*
 tenacity
 tiledb
-Werkzeug==2.2.3
diff --git a/tests/functional/backend/corpora/test_collection_access.py b/tests/functional/backend/corpora/test_collection_access.py
index a33b7ba676054..f58ac2559ac32 100644
--- a/tests/functional/backend/corpora/test_collection_access.py
+++ b/tests/functional/backend/corpora/test_collection_access.py
@@ -59,7 +59,10 @@ def test_nocollection_access(session, api_url, nocollection_cookie):
 
 
 def test_collection_access(session, api_url, supercurator_cookie, curator_cookie):
-    """Test that only a super curator has access to all of the collections"""
+    """Test that only a super curator has access to all of the collections
+
+    Note: Sometimes this fails if the rdev environment was not created properly. Rebuilding the rdev environment to fix.
+    """
     # get collection for supercurator user
     headers = {"Cookie": f"cxguser={supercurator_cookie}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
     res = session.get(f"{api_url}/dp/v1/collections", headers=headers)