diff --git a/backend/poetry.lock b/backend/poetry.lock
index 3aebca8fe..23746a6e2 100644
--- a/backend/poetry.lock
+++ b/backend/poetry.lock
@@ -822,23 +822,6 @@ files = [
     {file = "docutils-0.20.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:f08a4e276c3a1583a86dce3e34aba3fe04d02bba2dd51ed16106244e8a923e3b"},
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "en_core_sci_sm"
-version = "0.5.4"
-description = "Spacy Models for Biomedical Text."
-optional = false
-python-versions = "*"
-files = [
-    {file = "en_core_sci_sm-0.5.4.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:a54a114ee11dab7cf6db8cf69ef485145011537f45f3c16c71338c48fd6f070b"},
-]
-
-[package.dependencies]
-spacy = ">=3.7.4,<3.8.0"
-
-[package.source]
-type = "url"
-url = "https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ai2-s2-scispacy/releases/v0.5.4/en_core_sci_sm-0.5.4.tar.gz"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "et-xmlfile"
 version = "1.1.0"
@@ -5319,4 +5302,4 @@ testing = ["big-O", "jaraco.functools", "jaraco.itertools", "jaraco.test", "more
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.0"
 python-versions = "^3.9"
-content-hash = "2cce2c4f6dc36c8b23aa4a62bc72f03554f3fb69d0e219b388150642bd78575e"
+content-hash = "e4c96e16276d5a535c44767a7b270389e3bd60109bc821182f0b46494075a188"
diff --git a/backend/pyproject.toml b/backend/pyproject.toml
index 94f842b47..86293687f 100644
--- a/backend/pyproject.toml
+++ b/backend/pyproject.toml
@@ -33,9 +33,6 @@ typer = "^0.12.0"
 beautifulsoup4 = "^4.12.3"
 spacy = "^3.7.6"
 
-[tool.poetry.dependencies.en_core_sci_sm]
-url = "https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ai2-s2-scispacy/releases/v0.5.4/en_core_sci_sm-0.5.4.tar.gz"
-
 [tool.poetry.group.dev.dependencies]
 pytest = "^8.2.0"
 mkdocs = ">=1.6.0"
diff --git a/backend/src/monarch_py/implementations/spacy/spacy_implementation.py b/backend/src/monarch_py/implementations/spacy/spacy_implementation.py
index 20c74283e..431c2fe3f 100644
--- a/backend/src/monarch_py/implementations/spacy/spacy_implementation.py
+++ b/backend/src/monarch_py/implementations/spacy/spacy_implementation.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 from monarch_py.interfaces.text_annotation_interface import TextAnnotatorInterface
 from monarch_py.datamodels.model import TextAnnotationResult, SearchResult
 
+import pystow
+import tarfile
 
 @dataclass
 class SpacyImplementation(TextAnnotatorInterface):
@@ -16,10 +18,36 @@ class SpacyImplementation(TextAnnotatorInterface):
     grounding_implementation = None
 
     def init_spacy(self, grounding_implementation: GroundingInterface):
-        self.nlp = spacy.load("en_core_sci_sm")
+        # Define the URL for the Spacy model
+        model_url = "https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ai2-s2-scispacy/releases/v0.5.4/en_core_sci_sm-0.5.4.tar.gz"
+
+        # Use pystow.ensure to download and cache the model archive
+        model_archive = pystow.ensure("spacy", "models", url=model_url)
+        # Define the expected unpacked directory
+        model_dir = model_archive.parent / "en_core_sci"
+
+        # Unpack the model if it's not already unpacked
+        if not model_dir.exists():
+            print("Unpacking Spacy model...")
+            with tarfile.open(model_archive, "r:gz") as tar:
+                tar.extractall(path=model_dir.parent)
+
+        model_subdir = next((d for d in model_archive.parent.iterdir() if d.is_dir() and d.name.startswith("en_core_sci")), None)
+
+        if model_subdir:
+            inner_model_dir = next((d for d in model_subdir.iterdir() if d.is_dir() and d.name.startswith("en_core_sci") and "egg-info" not in d.name), None)
+            if inner_model_dir:
+                # Load the model
+                self.nlp = spacy.load(str(str(model_archive.parent / model_subdir.name / inner_model_dir.name / model_subdir.name)))
+
+        # Assign the grounding implementation
         self.grounding_implementation = grounding_implementation
+
+        # Test the model with a sample sentence
         self.nlp("Nystagmus, strabismus, fundus, ocular albinism, lewis.")
 
+
+
     def get_annotated_entities(self, text) -> List[TextAnnotationResult]:
         """Annotate text using SPACY"""
         results: List[TextAnnotationResult] = []