My research is focused on understanding how robust cellular mechanisms evolve at the mesoscale from noisy molecular level structure and dynamics of biopolymers. A major challenge in probing a living cell is its highly heterogeneous and crowded environment. To this end, a combination of bottom-up approaches such as coarse-grained theoretical modeling and single molecule force-extension experiments have helped capture the generic features of semiflexible biopolymers (for example DNA, actin bundles) and elucidate key biological questions. I apply mean-field theory together with computation to study the effects of variable tensile forces like electrophoretic stretching on the statistics and rheology of charged biopolymers (polyelectrolytes). The aim is to explain the eventual consequences of non-uniform tension on biologically relevant processes like DNA-histone packaging.