diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 25dc6b43..514585c6 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@ Type: Package
 Package: gDRcore
 Title: Processing functions and interface to process and analyze drug
     dose-response data
-Version: 1.3.9
-Date: 2024-08-09
+Version: 1.3.10
+Date: 2024-08-19
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Bartosz", "Czech", , "bartosz.czech@contractors.roche.com", role = "aut",
            comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-9908-3007")),
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Imports:
     BiocParallel,
     checkmate,
     futile.logger,
-    gDRutils (>= 1.1.14),
+    gDRutils (>= 1.3.9),
     MultiAssayExperiment,
     purrr,
     stringr,    
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 48f976a1..9c8ed719 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+## gDRcore 1.3.10 - 2024-08-19
+* utilize `calc_sd` function
+
 ## gDRcore 1.3.9 - 2024-08-09
 * fix issue with wrong mapping of Day0 data
 
diff --git a/R/average_SE.R b/R/average_SE.R
index 9f407d3d..6e2bd4b3 100755
--- a/R/average_SE.R
+++ b/R/average_SE.R
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ average_FUN <- function(x,
     unmasked <- x[!masked, , drop = FALSE]
     agg_df <- unmasked[, list(mean(x, na.rm = TRUE),
                               # set sd = 1 for single values
-                    ifelse(length(x) == 1, 0, sd(x, na.rm = TRUE))),
+                    gDRutils::calc_sd(x)),
              by = c("normalization_type", series_identifiers)]
     data.table::setorderv(agg_df, c(series_identifiers, "normalization_type"))
     data.table::setnames(agg_df, c("V1", "V2"), c("x", "x_std"))
diff --git a/rplatform/dependencies.yaml b/rplatform/dependencies.yaml
index a09aa4e3..e57789f1 100644
--- a/rplatform/dependencies.yaml
+++ b/rplatform/dependencies.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 pkgs:
   gDRutils:
-    ver: '>= 1.1.14'
+    ver: '>= 1.3.9'
     url: gdrplatform/gDRutils
     ref: main
     subdir: ~