I can think of a modification, try an SDS-PAGE gel for proteins and agarose gel for DNA/RNA. I have only seen a starch gel once in my life for phylogenetic categorization at a museum. What are you trying to do?
As part of our experiment we had done NATIVE-PAGE.....we tried to use starch as a substrate in two cases 1)Before loading the sample and run the gel we tried to incorporate the starch but that was tough , starch got very high molecular weight so hard to polymerise the gel but somehow we managed (added excess APS and TEMED)but it did not run because of the high molecular weight of starch, which affect the movement of the protein.So m just thinking how can i over-come with this problem? (i thought i can increase the pore size or use little amount of starch,but its of no use)
2) In this case after ran the gel we incorporated the starch and it worked.
I am talking about "NATIVE-PAGE" (which allows enzymes to be detected by sensitive and specific activity stains and delicate proteins to be resolved and recovered in a biologically active form.) not about SDS-PAGE.
You can run a PAGE gel without SDS. There are many protocols out there for non-denaturing PAGE. Trs-glycine gels can be used for these protocols as well. Here are some links that may help: