We seek to understand and exploit the non-ergodic character of polymer self-assembly in the design of biologically relevant constructs with complex functions. Our research is focused on establishing structure-property relationships of hierarchical assemblies by tuning the molecular characteristics of the building blocks and the assembly method. Specifically, we are interested in producing novel polymer-based colloids (micelles, nanoparticles, polymersomes) with controlled and responsive surface properties, and developing methods for their characterization. We aim to use this knowledge to engineer: i) vehicles for the delivery of therapeutics with enhanced site-specificity, ii) templates for probing biomolecular interactions.