Dr Aubrey de Grey believes people who have already been born could live for ten centuries because of ongoing research into extending the human lifespan.

British-born Mr de Grey, who graduated from Cambridge University in 1985, is the co-founder nd chief science officer of Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation – an organisation aiming to end biological ageing – based in California.

Scientists have been desperately trying to get ageing recognised as a disease and there have been several major breakthroughs in the anti-ageing agenda this year.

Most recently, experts from the University of Exeter and University of Brighton discovered they could rejuvenate senescent cells which have ceased their natural age cycle, causing them to divide.

The team applied compounds known as resveratrol analogues – chemicals which are naturally found in red wine, dark chocolate, red grapes and blueberries – to cells.

A statement from the University of Exeter said: “Within hours, the cells looked younger and started to rejuvenate, behaving like young cells and dividing.”

Now, Mr de Grey says that ageing will be conquered within the next 20 years and humans could be living to 1,000 years old, according to Inverse.

He said: “The fact is, raging kills 110,000 people worldwide every f***ing day. It doesn’t just kill them. You have to take into account all the suffering that comes before.

“It unequivocally causes far more suffering than anything else that we have to experience and contrary to the impression that most of humanity has forced itself into, it’s indeed a problem which is amenable through technological intervention.”

The controversial scientist has also dismissed any claims that people living for such a long time would be bad for the planet, with the most obvious concern being overpopulation.

Mr De Grey said: “The fact is, there is no such thing as overpopulation in an absolute sense” and that this move will force the powers that be into implementing clean energy.