The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) at University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), has regulated that all biobancks being accessed by researches submitting protocols for review are required to undergo a formal approval and registry process through a subcommittee of the HREC known as the Biobank Ethics Committee (BEC). P. Meewes of BARC South Africa & Safia Mohamed at the University of Witwatersrand explains that the committee has been assigned with a mandate to review all such research applications for biobank storage, or for registration of a biobank requesting approval for the storage of human biological material (HBM).