Dendronized polymers based on a poly(L-lysine) backbone have been synthesized up to the fourth generation. The hydroxyl-terminated polymers are completely water-soluble, which makes them good candidates for drug delivery applications. The dendronized polypeptide backbones are helical at lower generations, but undergo a dramatic conformational change from alpha-helical to disordered upon increasing the dendron size to the third generation. This conformational change, attributed to steric repulsions between dendrons, is supported by spectroscopic measurements while chain extension upon dendronization is confirmed by scanning force microscopy.