Stauprimide is a semi-synthetic analogue of the staurosporine family of indolocarbazoles. Stauprimide was first published in 1994 as part of an extensive structure-activity investigation to improve the selective inhibition of protein kinase C as potential antitumor agents. Stauprimide increases the efficiency of the directed differentiation of mouse and human embryonic stem cells in synergy with defined extracellular signalling cues.