diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c72102cb..384ca35d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -44,3 +44,8 @@ server/app/web/static/css/
 server/app/web/static/img/
 server/app/web/static/js/
 server/app/web/templates/index\.html
+
+
+*.egg-info
+dist/*
+
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..eabb0a2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+recursive-include server/app/web/templates *
+recursive-include server/app/web/static *
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/server/app/rest_api/rest.py b/server/app/rest_api/rest.py
index bc15c44d..a953d7ff 100644
--- a/server/app/rest_api/rest.py
+++ b/server/app/rest_api/rest.py
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ class InitializeAPI(Resource):
         }
     })
     def get(self):
-        from app import data, REACTIVE_LIMIT
+        from .. import data, REACTIVE_LIMIT
         return make_payload({
             "schema": data.schema,
             "cellcount": data.cell_count,
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ class CellsAPI(Resource):
         }
     })
     def get(self):
-        from app import data
+        from .. import data
         payload = {
             "metadata": [],
             "cellcount": 0,
@@ -199,8 +199,8 @@ class CellsAPI(Resource):
             "ranges": {},
         }
         # get query params
-        filter = parse_filter(request.args, data.schema)
-        filtered_data = data.filter_cells(filter)
+        cells_filter = parse_filter(request.args, data.schema)
+        filtered_data = data.filter_cells(cells_filter)
         payload["metadata"] = data.metadata(filtered_data)
         payload["ranges"] = data.metadata_ranges(filtered_data)
         payload["graph"] = data.create_graph(filtered_data)
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ class ExpressionAPI(Resource):
         }
     })
     def get(self):
-        from app import data
+        from .. import data
         expression_data = data.expression()
         return make_payload(expression_data)
 
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ class ExpressionAPI(Resource):
         }
     })
     def post(self):
-        from app import data
+        from .. import data
         args = request.get_json()
         cell_list = args.get("celllist", [])
         gene_list = args.get("genelist", [])
@@ -415,7 +415,7 @@ class DifferentialExpressionAPI(Resource):
         }
     })
     def post(self):
-        from app import data
+        from .. import data
         args = request.get_json()
         cell_list_1 = args.get("celllist1", [])
         cell_list_2 = args.get("celllist2", [])
diff --git a/server/requirements.txt b/server/requirements.txt
index cdd76273..93131d27 100644
--- a/server/requirements.txt
+++ b/server/requirements.txt
@@ -38,4 +38,4 @@ six==1.11.0
 statsmodels==0.9.0
 tables==3.4.4
 urllib3==1.23
-Werkzeug==0.14.1
+Werkzeug==0.14.1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..993abc62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+
+with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
+    long_description = fh.read()
+
+with open('server/requirements.txt') as fh:
+    requirements = fh.read().splitlines()
+
+setup(
+    name='cellxgene',
+    version='0.0.1',
+    packages=find_packages(),
+    url='https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/cellxgene',
+    license='MIT',
+    author='Colin Megill, Charlotte Weaver',
+    author_email='cweaver@chanzuckerberg.com',
+    description='Web application for exploration of large scale scRNA-seq datasets',
+    long_description=long_description,
+    long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
+    install_requires=requirements,
+    include_package_data=True,
+    zip_safe=False,
+    classifiers=(
+        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+        "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",
+    ),
+)