The lecture will describe the use of modern polymerization techniques to mediate the synthesis of polymeric architecture with excellent  control over their topology and functionality. These synthetic macromolecules  are then exploited to directly form functional materials, or associated to biopolymers such as peptides and cellulose to form natural/synthetic polymers conjugates. The exploitation of these well-defined macromolecules for the design of functional nanostructured materials via molecular self-assembly and self-organization will be discussed, with examples of applications in the materials and biomedical fields.