diff --git a/.circleci/config.backup b/.circleci/config.backup
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..029c1f06d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.circleci/config.backup
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Python CircleCI 2.0 configuration file
+#
+# Check https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/language-python/ for more details
+#
+version: 2
+jobs:
+  build:
+    docker:
+      # specify the version you desire here
+      # use `-browsers` prefix for selenium tests, e.g. `3.6.1-browsers`
+      - image: circleci/python:3.6.4
+
+      # Specify service dependencies here if necessary
+      # CircleCI maintains a library of pre-built images
+      # documented at https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/circleci-images/
+      # - image: circleci/postgres:9.4
+
+    working_directory: ~/repo
+
+    steps:
+      - checkout
+      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/bin
+      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages
+
+      # Download and cache dependencies
+      - restore_cache:
+          keys:
+          - v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+          # fallback to using the latest cache if no exact match is found
+          - v1-dependencies-
+
+      - run:
+          name: install dependencies
+          command: |
+            python3 -m venv venv
+            . venv/bin/activate
+            pip install -r requirements_ci.txt
+            pip install pytest
+            pip install pytest-cov
+
+      - save_cache:
+          paths:
+            - ./venv
+          key: v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+
+      # run tests!
+      # this example uses Django's built-in test-runner
+      # other common Python testing frameworks include pytest and nose
+      # https://pytest.org
+      # https://nose.readthedocs.io
+      - run:
+          name: run tests
+          command: |
+            . venv/bin/activate
+            pytest
+
+      - store_artifacts:
+          path: test-reports
+          destination: test-reports
diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index ea5465004..4ebc56732 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -1,56 +1,49 @@
 # Python CircleCI 2.0 configuration file
 #
 # Check https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/language-python/ for more details
-#
+# Adapted from https://github.com/NeuralEnsemble/python-neo
 version: 2
+workflows:
+  version: 2
+  test:
+    jobs:
+      - test-3.6
+      - test-2.7
 jobs:
-  build:
+  test-3.6:
     docker:
-      # specify the version you desire here
-      # use `-browsers` prefix for selenium tests, e.g. `3.6.1-browsers`
-#      - image: circleci/python:3.6.4
-      - image: circleci/python:2.7.15
-
-      # Specify service dependencies here if necessary
-      # CircleCI maintains a library of pre-built images
-      # documented at https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/circleci-images/
-      # - image: circleci/postgres:9.4
+      - image: circleci/python:3.6.4
 
     working_directory: ~/repo
 
     steps:
       - checkout
       - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/bin
-#      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages
-      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
 
       # Download and cache dependencies
       - restore_cache:
           keys:
-          - v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+          - v1-py3-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
           # fallback to using the latest cache if no exact match is found
-          - v1-dependencies-
+          - v1-py3-dependencies-
 
       - run:
           name: install dependencies
           command: |
-#            python3 -m venv venv
-            python -m venv venv
+            python3 -m venv venv
             . venv/bin/activate
             pip install -r requirements_ci.txt
             pip install pytest
             pip install pytest-cov
 
+
       - save_cache:
           paths:
             - ./venv
-          key: v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+          key: v1-py3-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements.txt" }}
+
 
       # run tests!
-      # this example uses Django's built-in test-runner
-      # other common Python testing frameworks include pytest and nose
-      # https://pytest.org
-      # https://nose.readthedocs.io
       - run:
           name: run tests
           command: |
@@ -60,3 +53,47 @@ jobs:
       - store_artifacts:
           path: test-reports
           destination: test-reports
+
+  test-2.7:
+    docker:
+      - image: circleci/python:2.7-stretch
+
+    working_directory: ~/repo
+
+    steps:
+      - checkout
+      - run: sudo chown -R circleci:circleci /usr/local/bin
+
+      # Download and cache dependencies
+      - restore_cache:
+          keys:
+          - v1-py2-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+          # fallback to using the latest cache if no exact match is found
+          - v1-py2-dependencies-
+
+      - run:
+          name: install dependencies
+          command: |
+            virtualenv venv2
+            . venv2/bin/activate
+            pip install -r requirements_ci.txt
+            pip install pytest
+            pip install pytest-cov
+            pip install mock  # only needed for Python 2
+
+      - save_cache:
+          paths:
+            - ./venv2
+          key: v1-py2-dependencies-{{ checksum "requirements_ci.txt" }}
+
+
+      # run tests!
+      - run:
+          name: run tests
+          command: |
+            . venv2/bin/activate
+            pytest
+
+      - store_artifacts:
+          path: test-reports
+          destination: test-reports