Soft materials undergo deformation easily due to external influence. For example, small thermal fluctuations can result in a large and non-linear change in their properties. Such materials generally comprise large molecules/colloids or their assemblies and thus give rise to slow and non-equilibrium responses. Many materials we use daily, like shampoo, clay, toothpaste, jellies, etc., fall under this category. In my talk, I will discuss our group's efforts in developing new class of soft materials from various functional colloidal building blocks. We show that our design strategies are driven by inquisitiveness and involve tuning the interactions between the building blocks. However, with a more fundamental understanding of the microstructure/phase behaviour and its connection with these materials' macroscopic properties (optical, catalytic, mechanical, etc.), we drive their utility towards health and the environment. In particular, we will show two examples in detail, where (a) we integrate liquid crystal technology with protein engineering to develop optical-based rapid, label-free biosensing platforms, and (b) we demonstrate unprecedented attractive interactions between similarly charged polymer chains and implications of these in gene transfection. If time permits, we will also show how we have ventured into translational research primarily by using the knowledge gained through exploratory projects and transforming it to develop materials for potentially solving real-life problems.