(-)-Indolactam V is an indole alkaloid compound which activates protein kinase C (PKC), which strongly directs human ES cell-derived definitive endoderm into pancreatic endoderm. It is weak tumor promoter. It binds to PKC regulatory domains of mouse skin PKCη and rat brain PKCγ with Ki values of 3.4 nM and 1 μM, respectively. It induces differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into pancreatic progenitors through activation of PKC signaling at 1 μM. It may be used as an effective diabetes therapy. It may share an RA-dependent signaling pathway, allowing ultimately to streamline the process of efficient pancreatic endoderm derivation. It was predicted to be a biosynthetic intermediate and was confirmed via in vitro prenylation by LtxC due to the structural relatedness of the lyngbyatoxins and teleocidin. It induces differentiation of a substantial number of Pdx1-expressing cells from human ESCs.