diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-docker.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-docker.yml
index 22609cdf..931dc9b6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-docker.yml
@@ -14,15 +14,20 @@ on:
       - created
 
 env:
+  DOCKER_BUILDKIT: 1
   IMAGE_NAME: fuji
 
 jobs:
-  
+
   build-and-publish:
     # Build and push image to GitHub Container Registry https://docs.docker.com/docker-hub/builds/
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
 
     steps:
+
+      - run: docker --version
+      - run: docker buildx version
+
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
       - name: Build image
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 3b68ed4b..ebc5ca80 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-FROM python:3
+# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1.5
+FROM python:3.8-slim
+
+WORKDIR /usr/src/app
+
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
+
 ### python:3 image: No java available: Cannot run TIKA... 
 ### Install Java via the package manager
 RUN apt-get update \
@@ -10,13 +17,9 @@ RUN apt-get update \
 ## OR: Use Ubuntu image with python and java pre-installed instead (smallest):
 #FROM korekontrol/ubuntu-java-python3:latest
 
-RUN mkdir -p /usr/src/app
-WORKDIR /usr/src/app
-
-COPY pyproject.toml ./
-COPY /fuji_server ./fuji_server
-
-RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir .
+COPY README.md pyproject.toml ./
+COPY fuji_server ./fuji_server
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir .
 
 # Docker doesn't like 'localhost'
 RUN sed -i "s|localhost|0.0.0.0 |g" ./fuji_server/config/server.ini
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8e1eee95..c301ca5a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ dependencies = [
   "idutils~=1.1.5",
   "jmespath~=0.10.0",
   "levenshtein~=0.12.0",
-  "lxml~=4.7.1",
+  "lxml~=4.7",
   "markupsafe~=2.0.1",
-  "pandas~=1.3.5",
+  "pandas~=1.3",
   "pyRdfa3~=3.5.3",
   "pyld~=2.0.3",
   "pyyaml!=6.0.0,!=5.4.0,!=5.4.1",
@@ -46,8 +46,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "werkzeug~=1.0"
 ]
 description = "FUJI (FAIRsFAIR Data Objects Assessment Service), A service to evaluate FAIR data objects based on FAIRsFAIR Metrics"
-# TODO: figure out why the README causes failure of building the docker container
-# readme = "README.md"
+readme = "README.md"
 keywords = [
   "PANGAEA",
   "FAIRsFAIR",