This invention provides multivalent ligands which carry or display at least one recognition element (RE), and preferably a plurality of recognition elements, for binding directly or indirectly to cells or other biological particles or more generally by binding to any biological molecule. Provided are methods for inducing cellular chemotaxis by introducing a multivalent ligand having at least one N-formyl or N-acyl peptide as a signal recognition element. The signal recognition elements are bound to a molecular scaffold that is a ring-opening metathesis polymerization scaffold. In these scaffolds, the number, spacing, relative positioning and relative orientation of signal recognition elements can be controlled.