Santa Monica biopharmaceutical firm Kite Pharma Inc. has inked an exclusive licensing and research deal with Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. to discover and develop T-cell therapies to treat cancer using aspects of Alpine’s protein technology.

The agreement is meant to accelerate Kite’s efforts to develop the next generation of engineered T-cell therapies.

Kite, which announced the deal Tuesday, will pay Seattle-based Alpine $5 million up front plus research costs and $530 million in milestone payments, a portion of which may be paid in shares of Kite’s common stock.

Alpine will conduct initial research to deliver certain pre-defined proteins, which Kite will continue researching and ideally transform into a proof-of-concept. If successful, Kite would further engineer the proteins into immunotherapy drug candidates.