diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 32cbcbae9..2dc3a02d7 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+## 1.1.5 (in progress)
+
+- Fixes for Python3 incompatibilities on distributed IPython runs.
+
 ## 1.1.4 (3 April 2019)
 
 - Move to Python 3.6. A python2 environment in the install runs non python3
diff --git a/bcbio/distributed/ipythontasks.py b/bcbio/distributed/ipythontasks.py
index 63ad96946..ab5609e0b 100644
--- a/bcbio/distributed/ipythontasks.py
+++ b/bcbio/distributed/ipythontasks.py
@@ -68,7 +68,18 @@ def wrapper(*args):
             return ipython.zip_args(fn(*args))
     return wrapper
 
-@require(sample)
+def apply(object, args=None, kwargs=None):
+    """Python3 apply replacement for double unpacking of inputs during apply.
+
+    Thanks to: https://github.com/stefanholek/apply
+    """
+    if args is None:
+        args = ()
+    if kwargs is None:
+        kwargs = {}
+    return object(*args, **kwargs)
+
+require(sample)
 def prepare_sample(*args):
     args = ipython.unzip_args(args)
     with _setup_logging(args) as config:
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fe931ef63..277e09db5 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 import os
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-version = "1.1.4"
+version = "1.1.5a"
 
 def write_version_py():
     version_py = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'bcbio', 'pipeline',